Gardenia cornuta fruit

Gardenia cornuta, the Tonga gardenia or horned gardenia, is a small, densely branched tree of up to 5 m. The name cornuta means horned, probably referring to the twisted calyx lobes that persist on the fruit.

G. cornuta grows in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Gauteng, Swaziland and Mozambique. The plant is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

Its fruit and roots are used in traditional medicine (Coates Palgrave, 2002; www.plantzafrica.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).