Searsia lucida

The varnished khuni-rhus or in Afrikaans blinktaaibos (shiny sticky bush) is usually a shrub, rarely a small tree. As these names suggest, the leaves are shiny. The height attained by Searsia lucida is rarely beyond 2 m.

The fruits are also shiny. They are dark brown, hairless drupes, spheroid in shape. Birds commonly eat the small fruit that become about 4 mm in diameter. 

The species distribution is along the south and east coasts of the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, as well as inland in the Mpumalanga and Limpopo Lowveld. The plant also grows in Lesotho, Swaziland and more southern African countries.

The habitat is forest, scrub and thicket, where the plants grow from sea level to 2000 m on sandy flats and slopes, as well as on coastal 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).