Searsia tomentosa fruit

The fruits of Searsia tomentosa are ovoid, thinly fleshy and pale velvety from a dense covering of short whitish hairs. Growing in clusters at stem-tips, they become about 5 mm in diameter.

The flowers that preceded them from late autumn to spring are very small, growing in terminal and axillary panicles, the sexes apart. The male flowers have an unpleasant scent.

One leaflet in picture obliged to turn over, displaying its velvety white undersurface and the bulge of its yellowish midrib. The photo was taken in October in Betty’s Bay (Coates Palgrave, 2002; iSpot).