Searsia pyroides var. pyroides spiny branchlets

This Searsia was found at Kagga Kamma in the Cederberg region, where Searsia pyroides is not expected to be found so far west. When other options were excluded, it was considered worth including this photo of what is believed to be S. pyroides var. pyroides. It may be wrong, or the exception proves the rule in a grey area, as so often happens in the life sciences.

The narrowly elliptic leaflets have entire margins and fold in along their midribs. They are dull pale green on long petioles.

Branchlets have it over leaflets here in the far west of the plant’s distribution. The short side-branchlets are thick-based, reducing diameter rapidly to their tips. Once dried out, only the leaf scars reveal that they did not start off as spines (Coates Palgrave, 2002; iNaturalist).