Wild Pomegranate

Description:

SA: 688 Spring-Summer Shrub or small evergreen tree; occurring in forest or on rocky outcrops in grassland. Branchlets hairy when young. Leaves broadly ovate, 50-180 x 25-80 mm, glossy dark green, hairless, or fine-haired above, dull green and soft-haired below; petiole thickset, hairy. Flowers in dense terminal clusters, orange to dark red, tubular, hairy. Fruit urn-shaped, crowned by persistent calyx lobes. The bark and root are used medicinally. An ornamental garden subject and extended bloomer, grown in semi-shade or full sun. (Van Wyk, Field Guide to the Trees if Southern Africa, 2011)