Melolobium candicans

Melolobium candicans, in Afrikaans commonly the stroopbos (syrup bush), is a single-stemmed, spiny shrublet reaching heights from 30 cm to 50 cm. The rigid, variably branching stems are white-velvety and thorny.

The hairless leaves are three-foliolate, the leaflets ovate, obovate to lanceolate in shape, shiny and sparsely glandular.

The stem-tip inflorescences comprise two to six flowers and end in spines. The yellow flowers have a peaflower shape and fade to red-orange. The calyces and bracts are shiny and glandular like the leaves. The bracts are shorter than the calyx tube. The flowers are up to 8 cm long. Bloomtime is all year round, more from late autumn to midsummer.

Straight, hairy fruit pods follow the flowering, each carrying about five seeds.

The species distribution is in the Northern Cape, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape, North West and the Free State, as well as in some neighbouring countries. The photo was taken at Minwater in the Little Karoo near Oudtshoorn.

The habitat is succulent Karoo and scrub. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; JSTOR; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).