Commiphora glandulosa

Commiphora glandulosa, the tall firethorn corkwood or grootdoringkanniedood in Afrikaans, is usually a single-stemmed, medium sized tree of up to 10 m.

The tree has a rounded crown and grey-green to yellow-green bark.  The leaves cluster on small spur-branchlets.  The flowers are small, pink or red and appear before the (winter) deciduous leaves in spring.  The spherical fruit are about 1 cm in diameter and may remain on the tree throughout summer.  Trees of this species are sometimes planted close together to form live fences.

The distribution of this tree lies largely in tropical and subtropical terrain, in South Africa restricted to the northeast in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The habitat is Lowveld dry bushveld and rocky ridges. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; http://redlist.sanbi.org)