Dasispermum suffruticosum

Dasispermum suffruticosum is a perennial that looks a bit like a garden herb. That brought it the Afrikaans name of duineseldery (dune celery), although it is not in the commercial league of Apium graveolens, the real celery.

The plant occurs widely along the southern parts of the SA coastline and is well described as a “dune endemic”. The genus Dasispermum comprises seven species, two of which are perennials. A revision of this and related genera was published in 2009 (Magee, et al of UJ in www.life.illinois.edu).

The somewhat woody stem starts off erectly with a few branches, but sprouts more of them annually from the nodes on the stem, as the plant sprawls on the sand. The leaves are intricately divided, firm and slightly succulent or fleshy, with the terminal leaflet characteristically turned inwards.

Flowering may happen at any time during the year depending on weather conditions, but is least likely in autumn. Flowers occur in dense umbels of small white or cream flowers with few succulent involucral bracts. The fruit is elliptical, about 4 mm in length with prominent corky ribs or wings along its length (Manning, 2007).