Euclea natalensis A.Dc.

Trees 2-12 m high with spreading crown and trunks 20 cm thick or more, or shrubs 0.6-5 m high; bark dark grey or black, thin and cracked; branchlets densely pubescent, subferruginous, often becoming glabrous. Leaves alternate, very occasionally subopposite, dark glossy green above and somewhat paler green below, coriaceous, petioled; densely ferruginous-pubescent when older, narrowly elliptic, oblanceolate, obovate-oblong, elliptic or even occasionally ovate, 3-10 cm long, 0.8-4 cm wide, sparsely or densely puberulous to pubescent on the upper surface and usually densely pubescent on lower surface; base cuneate to subacute; apex acute to rounded or obtuse; nerves very often raised forming a reticulate pattern on the upper and lower surface, occasionally not raised and rather inconspicuous (usually in specimens which dry a chocolate brown); margin somewhat revolute or not revolute, thickened, undulate or flat, entire; petiole 4-10 mm long; exstipulate. Inflorescence 1.5-3.5 cm long, usually compound, paniculate, axillary, sessile, all parts except for the corolla covered with a usually dense indumentum obscuring the surface of the branches and calyx; flowers 10 to more than 30; bracts obovate to obovate-lanceolate, about 2 mm long, densely hairy on outside, glabrous inside, caducous; female inflorescences usually more compact than the males, about 1ú5 cm long. Flowers dioecious, greenish-cream to pale yellow, with a heavy sweet scent. Male flowers usually somewhat bigger than the female. Calyx shallowly campanulate about 1/3-1/2 of the length of the corolla, densely hirsute on the outside, cleft halfway or more, 4-6-lobed; lobes ovate, acute to subacute. Corolla widely campanulate and often rather shallow when completely expanded, rather angular due to the subgibbous somewhat keeled lobes; lobes 4-5 with the margins somewhat fimbriate and revolute, quite glabrous or strigose on the keels, very occasionally strigose all over the outside; corolla lobes twice or more than twice as long as the tube, contorted, obtuse, often somewhat apiculate. Stamens 16-20, in two rows, often in pairs together; filaments glabrous, up to 1 mm long; anthers lanceolate, 1.5 mm long, hairy upwards, dehiscing by longitudinal slits: Ovary rudimentary, hairy, situated on a fringed disc. Female flowers smaller than the male but otherwise similar. Staminodes usually present, flat, hairy only at the apex, like the stamens often somewhat connate at the base, few to many. Ovary subglobose, densely hirsute, usually 4-celled with a single pendulous ovule in each cell; style very short, branches 2, broadened at the apex, stigmas obliquely crescent-shaped. Fruit a berry, with a thin fleshy outer layer, red, turning black when ripe, globose, about 7 mm in diam., thinly strigose to glabrescent, usually one-seeded. Seeds globose, 5 mm in diam., finely rugose on the surface, dark brown, divided into three parts by two thin lines and a short groove; endosperm not ruminate, flinty, pale grey.

It is a tropical and subtropical plant. It usually grows in coastal areas. It grows along river banks. It can grow from sea level to 1200 m altitude. Young plants need protecting from frost. It can grow in arid places. It suits hardiness zones 9-12. In Brisbane Botanical Garden.

The fruit are eaten. Caution: Some say the fruit are poisonous.

Plants can be grown from seeds.