Brachylaena discolor

Brachylaena discolor, the coastal silver-oak or kreukelboom (wrinkle tree) in Afrikaans, is an evergreen shrub or small tree (SA Tree List No. 724).

The flowers grow in winter and early spring in dense or lax terminal and axillary panicles. Individual flowerheads (Brachylaena forms part of Asteraceae), become from 6 mm to 12 mm long on stalks of 5 mm. The fruit is an achene or nutlet crowned with a tuft of cream bristles.

The coastal silver-oak grows in nature mainly along the South African east coast of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal; also in Swaziland and Mozambique.

The habitat is coastal forest, bushveld and dunes, often close to the sea, although eastern Mpumalanga also has some. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

This tree is growing in popularity in the gardening world (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; http://redlist.sanbi.org).