Greyia radlkoferi

Greyia radlkoferi, the woolly bottlebrush or wollerige baakhout (woolly direction giver wood) in Afrikaans, is a small, deciduous tree reaching heights up to 5 m (SA Tree List No. 445). The main stem is crooked and gnarled with rough bark, the branches smooth and yellowish or brown when young, grey and furrowed later.

The flowers are red and bell-shaped with conspicuously protruding red stamens. The flowers grow in densely crowded racemes. Blooming happens late winter and early spring, simultaneously with the appearance of the young leaves.

The species distribution is in the northeast of South Africa, in KwaZulu-Natal and the Lowveld of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, as well as some neighbouring countries.

The habitat is rocky cliffs and gullies of the Escarpment Mountains, along streambanks and evergreen forest margins. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Pooley, 1993; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).