Muraltia heisteria

Muraltia heisteria, commonly called the prickly purplegorse and in Afrikaans the kastybos (chastise bush), is an erect shrub of 1,5 m, often with several solitary stems standing out loosely.

The leaves are sessile, lanceolate to oblong, hard in texture and tapering to sharp spiny tips that offer a prickly reception. Leaf margins may be hairy.

The five sepals are identical, forming a small calyx. Many of the small purple flowers, sometimes with a little white and sometimes altogether white, are usually scattered along the stems, growing from upper leaf axils from winter to summer.

The species distribution is predominantly in the Western Cape, slightly into the southwest of the Northern Cape and coastally in the west of the Eastern Cape.

The habitat is rocky, fynbos and renosterveld slopes in sandstone derived soils. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005; iNaturalist; https://pza.sanbi.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).