Erianthemum dregei (Eckl. & Zeyh.) van Tiegh.

dregei: after Johann Franz Drège (1794-1881), German horticulturalist, botanical collector and explorer who worked extensively in South Africa.

Branched parasitic shrub with spreading or pendent stems, up to 1.5 m. Branchlets with white to fulvous stellate hairs. Leaves opposite to alternate, well spaced, elliptic-oblong to ovate, glabrous to subdensely stellate pubescent. Flowers in 2-6-flowered heads, axillary or at nodes below. Corolla 3-5 cm long, pale yellowish-green, sometimes flushed orange to pink on the tube above the basal swelling, usually densely silky hairy. Berry orange to bright red, 10-15 mm, including calyx, pilose; seed red.

Locally common in higher rainfall areas

From Ethiopia to the Eastern Cape in South Africa, west to Angola.