Grewia flava

Grewia flava, the velvet raisin or brandewynbos in Afrikaans, is a shrub or small tree (SA Tree List No. 459.1).

The leaves of the velvet raisin are alternate, almost symmetric with toothed margins and sharing the genus feature of three veins starting from the leaf base. Leaves are more hairy on their lower surfaces than on top, the velvet in the common name certainly earned.

The yellow flowers measure about 1,5 cm across, appearing solitary or in heads of two or three. The fruits are almost spherical, brown when ripe bearing one or two seeds.

The southern African distribution of the species is large, covering most of the inland area, away from the coast. The typical habitat is variably arid deciduous woodland, bushveld and Kalahari dunes. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; http://redlist.sanbi.org).