Searsia fastigata

Searsia fastigata, commonly known as the broom currant and sometimes as S. fastigiata, is a much-branched, sometimes sprawling shrub or small tree reaching heights from 1 m to 3 m (SA Tree List No. 383.1).

The bark is brown and smooth. The slender stems are often erect in the young, grey-brown branchlets and sometimes hairy.

The trifoliolate leaves have oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic leaflets, the central one biggest. The leaflet tip is rounded or tapering to a point and sometimes ending in a mucro, the leaflet base narrowly tapering. The specific name, fastigata, is derived from the Latin word fastigatus meaning sloping or narrowing to a point, referring to the leaflet tips or to the (fastigiate) branching at the top of the plant.

There are no leaflet petiolules, but the leaf has a petiole of up to 1 cm that has narrow wings. The leathery blades are darker green on top than below, sometimes hairy below. There are creamy, lateral veins that curve in, prominent on the lower surface, as is the midrib. Leaflet margins are entire and rolled under slightly. The central leaflet becomes from 6 mm to 4 cm long and from 4 mm to 1 cm wide.

The species distribution is fairly near the coast from the east of the Western Cape across the Eastern Cape to the south of KwaZulu-Natal. The plant in picture was seen further west than expected, near the Kammanassie Dam.

The habitat is scrub and wooded kloofs in woodland and forest. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Pooley, 1993; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).