Short Thorn Rhigozum

brevispinosum: with short spines.

Shrub or multi-stemmed small tree up to c. 3 m tall. Branches rigid, squarish and twisted, armed with short spines. Leaves in opposite clusters on small woolly spurs, sub-sessile, simple or rarely 3-foliolate, narrowly oblanceolate, 2-5 cm long, grey-green, mostly hairless when mature; apex rounded to notched; margin entire. Flowers appearing with the leaves, showy, golden yellow, 2-4 cm in diameter, petals wrinkled along the edges, solitary or in few-flowered clusters among the leaves. Fruit a flattened slender capsule, c. 7 × 1.2 cm, light green to pale brown with a sharply pointed tip, dehiscent.

Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Northern Cape and Limpopo, South Africa.