Phylica oleifolia

Phylica oleifolia, the glossy hardleaf, is a somewhat rounded, often dense shrub or small tree reaching 3 m in height (SA Tree List. No. 453.3). The bark is grey and smooth.

Small, cream-coloured flowers grow in small terminal heads during autumn and early winter. Their petals are smaller than their pointed sepal lobes. The flower stalks and calyces are covered in white hairs.

The fruit is a three-lobed, hard capsule, somewhat globose in shape with the calyx remains forming a cup around the lower part. Some of those in picture are red-brown and shiny. The fruit becomes up to 1 cm in diameter.

The species is distributed in a broad swathe near the west coast of the Western Cape and Northern Cape from Ceres and Malmesbury to Namaqualand. The photo was taken in the Gifberg in October.

The habitat is arid montane areas on rocky slopes in succulent Karoo and dry fynbos. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).