Englerophytum natalense leaves

The leaves of Englerophytum natalense crowd at branch tips, the very youngest ones folding in along the midribs and covered in brown hairs. The younger leaves in the photo have opened, but still retain an orange tint.

The leaf stalk is without stipules, wrinkled and dark brown, becoming up to 1,4 cm long. Leaf shape is narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, tapering at both ends, the wavy margins entire. The leaf surface is glossy green and hairless above, silvery from a flat-lying hairy covering below. The leaf midrib is sunken above, prominent below.

White or cream flowers grow stalkless, solitary or in small clusters from leaf axils. Sunbirds visit the flowers for nectar, unaware of incidental pollen transportation. Flowering happens late in spring to early autumn.

The fleshy fruit is a red, ovoid to cylindrical berry. The style of the discarded flower persists at the tip of the fruit, as does the fleshy calyx lobes around its base. The hairy fruit becomes 2,5 cm long and 1,5 cm wide, carrying a single seed. The seed has an oblong scar on its side. The fruits are edible, sought after by people, monkeys and birds (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; Pooley, 1993).