Flaky Bark Bride's Bush

eylesii: named after Frederick Eyles (1864 - 1937)

Shrub or small deciduous tree, often multi-stemmed. Bark pale-grey-brown, flaking in long vertical strips. Leaves opposite, fairly thinly textured, elliptic to broadly obovate, 10-16cm long with 8-12 pairs of lateral veins, sparsely hairy to velvety, particularly below, bright green above, paler below; bacterial nodules few to many scattered throughout the leaf; domatia absent; margin entire. Flowers in dense axillary heads, up to 10 cm in diameter. Corolla white c. 9 mm in diameter. Fruit subspherical, 8-10 mm in diameter, purple-black when ripe, crowned with the persistent calyx.

Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Limpopo, North West, Mpumalanga and Gauteng, South Africa.