Lowveld Bead String

laxiflora: with lax or open inflorescences

Deciduous shrub or small tree. Bark smooth, pale grey, flaking. Leaves alternate, elliptic-lanceolate to oblong-oblanceolate, up to 17 × 8 cm, acuminate, 3-veined from the base, thinly textured, light green, turning an attractive yellow or red in autumn; margin shallowly crenate-serrate. Flowers in axillary spikes, unisexual on the same plant. The reddish bracts more conspicuous than the small flowers. Fruit a 2-4-lobed capsule, 5-7 mm in diameter, thinly woody, blackish-brown.

Locally common

From Nigeria to Ethiopia and down to Mpumalanga, South Africa.