Searsia pallens

Searsia pallens, the ribbed kuni-bush, is a much branched, many-stemmed shrub of 3 m in height (SA Tree List No. 395).

The leaves are oblanceolate to narrowly obovate. The lateral leaflets are just a little smaller than the terminal one. The leaves are hairless and wavy; the new ones are shiny and resinous. The veins are dark, more visible above than below. The leaves have petioles (stalks), but the leaflets don’t have petiolules, i.e. stalkless, tapering at the base right up to the tip of the leaf petiole.

The flowers grow in leaf axils and at branch tips in small heads. The fruits are ovoid, thinly fleshy drupes, shiny brown in colour.

The distribution ranges along the south and east coasts of South Africa and inland in Mpumalanga, Gauteng and North West.

The leaves are used in traditional medicine (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997).