Hypericum revolutum

Hypericum revolutum, the curry-bush, is a shrub or small tree reaching heights to around 3 m (SA Tree List No. 484). The curry-bush name comes from the smell of curry exuded by the bush.

The leaves are small, narrow and elliptic with no petioles. Leaf colour is usually bright green or yellowish green, sometimes bluish green. The margins are entire and the tips sharply pointed.

The flowers are bright yellow, 5 cm in diameter. There is a mass of thin yellow stamens around the maroon style on a green ovary. The fruit is a brown capsule.

The species distribution is in the east and north-east of South Africa, from the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal to Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Limpopo. It is also found in Swaziland, Zimbabwe and more widely in tropical Africa. The photo was taken at Bourkes Luck.

The habitat is open grassland and forest margins at high altitude. The plant is often a forest pioneer. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; http://redlist.sanbi.org).