Sesamothamnus guerichii

Sesamothamnus guerichii, commonly known as the Herero sesamebush, does not grow naturally in South Africa. The multistemmed, deciduous plant is dense and rigid, up to 3 m tall. It has smooth, yellow-brown to creamy grey bark. The erect stems are succulent or swollen, particularly near the base. The hairless branches are armed with three spines or thorns per node. The central thorn of each trio is longer, sometimes curved, the laterals up to 3 mm long.

The simple leaves are fascicled or spiralled on small spur-branchlets. The leaf shape is ovate to lanceolate, the margins entire. The leaves are 2 cm to 3 cm long and usually over 5 mm wide.

The yellow flowers grow in short, few-flowered racemes from leaf axils and stem tips. They have cylindrical corolla tubes that are slightly swollen at the base, and slightly curved. These tubes are up to 10 cm long. The flowers of this species are without spurs. 

The fruit capsules are ellipsoid to ovoid, blunt at the tips, two-valved and up to 6 cm long.

S. guerichii grows in the northwest of Namibia and in Angola. The photo was taken in Namibia. The plant is related to S. lugardii that is fairly common in Limpopo. 

The habitat is arid mountain slopes (Mannheimer and Curtis, (Eds.), 2009; Coates Palgrave, 2002; iNaturalist).