Gardenia cornuta Seeds - Natal Gardenia - Indigenous Shrub or Small Evergreen Tree

Gardenia cornuta Seeds

Natal Gardenia, Horned Gardenia; Wilde-appel, Natalkatjiepiering

The spectacular, large white and yellow flowers with their sweet scent, attracts passers-by from a distance to this small, much-branched tree. The smooth, glossy, golden yellow fruits add to this spectacle in the bushveld, thicket, and woodland and on grassy plains. Gardenia cornuta commonly known as Natal Gardenia or Horned Gardenia in English and Wilde-appel or Natalkatjiepiering in Afrikaans is a shrub or multi-branched small tree, 3 to 5 m tall, with erect and spreading main branches, branchlets sometimes with thick thorns, a trunk that is whitish grey, the bark is smooth, often flaking into thin peels. Leaves are smooth and crowded at the ends of twigs, usually in whorls of three, light glossy green, short-stalked, 20-30 mm long and broad, margins smooth; stipules joined to form a ring around the node. Flowers are solitary at the ends of short, rigid branches, borne November to March, white turning yellow, short-stalked, with a long, slender greenish tube, 50-60 mm, and spreading white lobes, 20-30 mm long. The calyx is very unusual, with 6 long, narrow lobes arising from its sides and not at its apex. Fruits which are more attractive than the flowers are more or less pear-shaped, woody, tipped with persistent remains of the calyx, glossy golden yellow, 40-50 x 30-35 mm, usually produced in large quantities between February and August. Seeds are hard and flattened. Decorative fruiting branches placed in a vase may remain fresh for up to month, sin branches are able to absorb water readily. In traditional medicine, fruit and roots are boiled and used as an emetic. Poles are used for fencing around the homestead and for fuel.