Karomia speciosa forma speciosa

Karomia speciosa forma speciosa, commonly southern Chinese hats and previously Karomia tettensis and Holmskoldia speciosa respectively, is an upright, multi-stemmed shrub or small tree reaching heights around 6 m (SA Tree List no. 668). The bark is grey, or brown, rough and covered in lenticels. There may be spines on the branches.

The leaves are opposite, variable in size and shape, ranging from elliptic to obovate or oblanceolate and up to 11 cm long. Their margins may be entire or shallowly to markedly toothed or scalloped.

The species distribution is in the northeast of South Africa, in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, as well as in Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

The habitat is dry and hot slopes among bush or thicket. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; http://redlist.sanbi.org).