Searsia glauca

Searsia glauca, the blue kuni-bush, is a small, densely branched, evergreen shrub or sometimes a small tree reaching heights to around 4 m (SA Tree List No. 383.2). The bark is pale grey, the branches characteristically angular. The shrub may become up to 5 m in diameter.

The leaves of the blue kuni-bush are three-foliolate, the hallmark of the Searsia genus. They are scattered or clustered on the young reddish branchlets. The leaflets are obovate, the terminal one being the biggest. Leaf colour is glossy green when young, from a resinous coating that dries to leave a grey, powdery layer on older leaves, leaving some of them bluish. The tips of leaflets may be slightly indented. They have short hairy appendages at the leaf apices.

The flowers are small, appearing in white, yellow or pale green axillary or terminal clusters in winter. The fruits are spherical and red-brown in colour.

The species distribution is along the southern coast of South Africa, ranging in the Western Cape from Velddrif and the Cape Peninsula to the Eastern Cape as far as Kentani and Butterworth or Gcuwa; also inland to Worcester, the Little Karoo and the Baviaanskloof.

The habitat is coastal dunes, along watercourses and inland in fynbos, succulent Karoo and Albany thicket on gravelly slopes. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; www.wildcard.co.za; http://redlist.sanbi.org).