Gymnosporia szyszylowiczii leaves and branches

The leaves of Gymnosporia szyszylowiczii grow in fascicles on the many small spur-branchlets that bring a dense appearance to the plant. Some leaves also occur on the spines and in the leaf axils or spread along the branchlets. Leaf colour is blue-grey to grey-green, the texture hard and leathery, surfaces smooth and hairless. Leaf bases taper while apices are rounded with entire margins of the elliptic to obovate leaf shapes. Leaf petioles are very short.

The fissured, grey and rough bark of the older stems, finer on the younger, smaller ones, is visible in the picture. The hard angularity of the sharp-tipped spur-branchlets makes an accidental night-time encounter with this shrub a daunting prospect (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010).