Gymnosporia devenishii Jordaan

Shrub or small tree up to 8 m tall, spinescent, glabrous. Brachyblasts present. Branches angular and green when young, becoming terete and grey with age. Spines slender, up to 70 mm long. Leaves fasciculate or alternate towards lips of branchlets, glabrous, subcoriaceous. dark, green, petiolate; lamina elliptic or ovate, 20-27 x 14-18 mm, apex acute, rounded to emarginate, base cuneate or rounded, margin serrate to crenate, venation prominent below when dry, midrib prominently raised on both sides; petiole 2-3 mm long; stipules subulate. ± 2 mm long, apex filiform, margin fimbriate, marcescent. Inflorescence a dichasium, shorter than leaves; peduncles 4-6 mm long; pedicels 2-3 mm long. Flowers unisexual. 3-9 per cyme. Sepals 5, broadly triangular, 0.8 mm long, margin ciliolate. Petals 5, white or cream, oblong, 1.0-1.5 mm long, margin uneven. Male flowers: stamens 5, slightly shorter than petals; filaments 1.5-2.5 mm long, slender, arising below margin of disc; pistillode small, ridged, with short capitate style. Disc 1.5 mm in diameter, narrow, wavy, 10-lobed. Female flowers: staminodes 5, shorter than stamens in male flowers; style 1 mm long, stigma 3-branched, spreading; ovary 3-locular, sulcate; ovules 2 per locule. Capsules 3-valved, 5-6 mm long, smooth, subglobose, prominently sulcate, with 6-12 ridges, thickly coriaceous, glabrous, yellow or pink. Seeds golden brown, 4 mm long; aril yellow, partially covering the seed.