Gymnosporia polyacantha subsp. vaccinifolia

Gymnosporia polyacantha subsp. vaccinifolia, the kraal spikethorn, is a heavily armed shrub or small tree growing from an underground rhizome. It usually becoming only 1,5 m to 2 m tall and tends to form thickets.

Small white flowers with five-pointed corollas are borne in sparsely branched heads from midsummer through autumn. The fruit, a three-sectioned, green to red-brown capsule, 3 mm in diameter, may be seen on the tree until early in the following spring. One to three black seeds are produced, attached to yellow arils.

The plant is distributed north of the Vaal River, in North West, Gauteng, southern Limpopo and western Mpumalanga. Its habitat is dry woodland and bushveld. The subspecies is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; www.redlist.sanbi.org).