Oedera squarrosa

Oedera squarrosa, commonly known in Afrikaans as vierkantperdekaroo (square horses’ Karoo) or krulblaarkoorsbos (curl leaf fever bush) and previously as Relhania squarrosa, is a twiggy shrub reaching heights from 30 cm to 90 m.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape from the Cape Peninsula to the southwest of the Northern Cape near Nieuwoudtville and the Eastern Cape as far as Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). The photo was taken west of Barrydale.

The habitat is stony slopes and flats near the mountain ranges within the species distribution. The plants grow in sandy, loamy or clayey soils, sometimes among renosterbos. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; https://keyserver.lucidcentral.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).