Freylinia tropica

Freylinia tropica is usually a shrub, occasionally a small tree of up to 7 m (SA Tree List No. 670.3). It is commonly called blue honey-bells, a name understood when looking at the picture.

The leaves are obovate or oblanceolate with variably toothed margins. The flowers are mauve, lilac, blue or white with long thin corolla tubes and five spreading lobes at their mouths. Flowers grow in axillary clusters near branch tips. They appear in spring and summer.

The fruits are pale brown, ovoid capsules tipped with the persistent styles. These fruits are dehiscent, i.e. they burst open to release their seeds when ripe.

Only a small part of the species distribution lies in South Africa, in the north-west of Limpopo in the Waterberg. The bigger part of is in the east of Zimbabwe and across the border in the west of Mozambique.

The habitat is forest margins at high altitude, along streambanks and misty slopes. The plant is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; http://redlist.sanbi.org).