''Gymnosporia tenuispina'' is a
Southern African
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...
shrub or small tree of about 2 metres in height belonging to the family
Celastraceae.
Endemic to South Africa and eastern
Botswana, it is common on rocky outcrops,
dip slopes and bushveld, and armed with slender spines of about 25mm long. Leaves are alternate or densely clustered in tufts, elliptic to almost linear, margins irregularly and finely serrate, apex frequently notched.
Edwin Percy Phillips, the South African taxonomist, describes the genus ''Gymnosporia'' in his 1926 ''"Genera of South African Plants"'' as ''Sepals 5, sometimes unequal, acute, obtuse, sometimes acuminate, with entire, deeply laciniated or fimbriated margins. Petals oblong to sub-orbicular, with the margins entire ciliated or undulate. Disc deeply 5-lobed, sometimes 5-sided, collar-like or saucer-shaped, with crenate or undulate margins. Ovary 2-4-chambered, with 2 ovules in each chamber; style usually short; stigma 2-4-lobed. Fruit a capsule. Seeds often with an aril.''
Gallery
File:Maytenus tenuispina IMG 3187.JPG,
File:Maytenus tenuispina05.jpg,
References
External links
iSpotSANBI
with distribution map
*
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15341341, from2=Q15330480
tenuispina
Flora of South Africa
Flora of Botswana