Gymnosporia szyszylowiczii

Gymnosporia szyszylowiczii, the lemoenpendoring or orange spikethorn, is a much-branched, spiny shrub that grows to about 3 m in height (SA Tree List No. 402.6 and possibly No. 402.7 as well).

The distribution of the plant is dichotomous: the southern part lies mainly in the Little Karoo, but also south of the Langeberg and into the eastern parts of the Great Karoo to Graaff-Reinet; the northerly distribution is along the Gariep River in the Northern Cape and in southern Namibia.

The plants of the northerly distribution have smaller leaves and flowers. The two may eventually be considered to be a different species or subspecies. The species seems to be in the throes of a name change: SANBI now calls it Gymnosporia sp. A (in the Redlist website), while iNaturalist doesnt recognise the name.

The habitat is semi-arid, rocky slopes where the plants grow among diverse karoid scrub in clayey soils, receiving winter rain. The shrub is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

It used to be classified in the Cassine genus before Gymnosporia (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Coates Palgrave, 2002; http://redlist.sanbi.org).