About Gymnosporia tenuispina (Sond.) Szyszyl.
Gymnosporia tenuispina (Sond.) Szyszyl. is a Southern African shrub or small tree, reaching roughly 2 meters in height, and a member of the Celastraceae plant family. It is native to eastern South Africa, eastern Botswana, and Zimbabwe. This species is commonly found growing on rocky outcrops, dip slopes, and in bushveld, and is covered in slender spines that grow to about 25 millimeters long. Its leaves grow in an alternate arrangement, or are densely packed into clustered tufts. Leaf shapes range from elliptic to nearly linear, leaf margins are irregularly and finely serrated, and leaf tips are frequently notched. In his 1926 publication "Genera of South African Plants", South African taxonomist Edwin Percy Phillips described the genus Gymnosporia as having the following characteristics: 5 sepals, which are sometimes unequal, can be acute, obtuse, or sometimes acuminate, and have margins that are entire, deeply laciniated, or fimbriated. Petals range in shape from oblong to sub-orbicular, with margins that are entire, ciliated, or undulate. The disc is deeply 5-lobed, and sometimes 5-sided; it can be collar-like or saucer-shaped, with crenate or undulate margins. The ovary has 2 to 4 chambers, with 2 ovules in each chamber. The style is usually short, and the stigma is 2 to 4-lobed. The fruit of the genus is a capsule, and seeds often have an aril.
