Searsia nebulosa leaves

Searsia nebulosa, the coastal currant, is sometimes a small tree of 4 m, often only a scrambling shrub of about 1 m. The stems are occasionally spiny.

The leaves are sessile or stalkless, the leaflets broadly elliptic or obovate, shinier above than below. The terminal leaflet is bigger than the lateral pair. The leaflet midrib is ridged, ending in a mucro, a short, sharp point or hair-like tip beyond the rounded apex.

The flowers are small, growing in lax axillary heads in late summer or autumn. The fruit is a globose red-brown drupe.

The coastal currant grows on the South African east coast and northwards to Mozambique and Swaziland, often occurring in sandy dune scrub.

There is a hairy leaf form to the south in the Eastern Cape. Otherwise the leaves tend to be glabrous, i.e. hairless (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997).