Diospyros lycioides Desf.

Shrubs 0.6-5 m high or occasionally developing into trees up to 7 m high, lax or often much branched; branches mostly naked below, densely leafy at the tips with the leaves crowded together on young branches, spreading or ascending, young twigs mostly pallid or brownish, appressed-pubescent or occasionally glabrescent; bark smooth. ash-grey or sometimes brownish. Leaves alternate, shortly but distinctly petiolate; leaf-blade 1.3-8 cm long and 0.5-3 cm wide, oblanceolate to oblanceolate-obovate rarely, elliptic, rather coriaceous in texture, smooth, flat, dull in colour, young leaves pubescent, appressed-pubescent, sericeous or glabrescent, mature leaves mostly glabrescent above, sparsely appressed-pubescent to densely sericeous; mid-nerve and secondary nerves distinctly raised below and impressed above or not raised except for the mid-nerve; petioles 0.3-1.5 cm long. Flowers dioecious, female and functionally male, pentamerous, solitary, axillary, pendulous, white, cream-coloured to yellow, fragrant, 5-8 mm long, campanulate; peduncles longer than the flowers, slender, up to 3 cm long, pubescent, arching; bracts 2, borne on the upper half of the peduncle, distant, up to 5 mm long, slender, linear or widened above, deciduous. Calyx densely and coarsely pubescent, divided nearly to the base, lobes 5, triangular with a glabrescent tip, lanceolate, about half as long as the flower, accrescent. Corolla up to 8 mm long, pubescent to glabrescent, usually with a line of coarse pubescence down the back of the lobes; tube 1/3 to 1/2 the length of the lobes; lobes imbricate, oblong, rounded at the apex, strongly reflexed. Stamens 10, all or a few reduced to staminodes in the female flowers; fertile anthers 3-4.5 mm long, narrowly lanceolate, hairy, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, filaments very short and broad, glabrous; staminodes 1-2 mm or longer, very hairy. Ovary 4-10-celled, more or less conical when young, borne on a distinct but thin glabrous disc, densely silvery pubescent, gradually tapering into the style; style short, branches 2-5, glabrous upwards. Fruit fleshy when ripe but drying smooth and hard, puberulous, glabrescent, ovoid, broadly oblong in outline to subglobose, up to 2 cm long, with a small mucro at the apex, green, yellow or rosy to red, light brown when dry; calyx accrescent, up to 9 mm long, lobes narrowly oblong, strongly reflexed. Seeds dark brown, minutely pitted, oblong to elliptic-oblong, with a distinct oblique groove circumventing it; hilum broadly elliptic, smooth, 0.3 mm long.

A tropical plant. It can tolerate drought and frost. It grows between 600-1,000 m above sea level in southern Africa, It does well in a sandy soil. It can grow in slightly salty soils. It can grow in arid places. It grows in Miombo woodland in Africa. It suits hardiness zones 9-11. Wittunga Botanical Gardens. Mt Lofty Botanical Gardens.

The fruit are eaten sometimes by children. They are bitter. The fruit are also fermented and distilled to produce brandy. The seeds are roasted for coffee.

Plants can be grown from seeds. Seeds germinate fairly easily. It can be cut back and will re-grow.