Searsia chirindensis from below

These Searsia chirindensis leaves photographed against the light in Kirstenbosch show much yellow in September. Not every tree grows next to the Boomslang for easy pictures of its crown.

The tree was at the time labelled S. chirindensis forma legatii, the forma appendage now discarded from the species name, sunk into the general species.

Red currant trees grow all along the east and south coasts of South Africa, as far west as Agulhas, not quite reaching Kirstenbosch. Why the sometimes evergreen, usually deciduous, forest tree should turn yellow after winter rain is uncertain; there were no other distress signs upon it (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Pooley, 1993).