The Pink Wild Pear, native to S. Africa is very occasionally seen in parks or lgardens.
They are a shrub usually under 4 m high and wide.
They have multiple slender branching stems from the base.
Stems are erect to almost horizontal and close to the ground.
The simple, glandular or stellate hairs on young stems are lost on older ones.
Simple hairs are long, glandular are short and the stellate hairs have 2 or 3 arms.
Alternately arranged leaves are on a petiole 10 to 15 cm long.
The pair of ovate or lance-shaped stipules near the petiole base are up to 1.5 cm long.
Hairs on the petioles are like those on the stems but they are denser.
Wide ovate, almost round blades are around 20 cm long and almost as wide.
They may have 3 (5) lobes that usually have a pointed tip.
The bases are heart-shaped and the edges may have small sharp to blunt teeth.
There are up to 9 veins (nerves) from the base (palmate).
Young leaves have dense hairs on both surfaces.
Older leaves usually still have a lot of hairs on the lower surface making it paler.
The upper surface has numerous large stellate hairs.
Axillary inflorescences range from 5 to 20 cm long.
The peduncle, up to 15 cm long has hairs similar to those on the petioles.
Some inflorescences only have a few flowers but most have many.
The central axis has flowers along it with the terminal one opening first.
Longer pedicels on the lower flowers bring them to around the same level as the apical one.
The longest peduncles are around 15 cm long and the pedicels are up to 4 cm.
Occasional inflorescences are umbel-like with all the flowers attached near the tip.
They can occasionally branch.
There are narrow triangular to ovate bracts on the peduncle.
Up to around 1 cm long, the deciduous bracts have few to dense hairs like the petioles.
The epicalyx, just under the calyx has 3 bracts under 15 mm long.
The deciduous bracts are wide ovate, oblong or lance-shaped with a pointed tip.
The outer surface can have few to dense simple and stellate hairs.
The 5 narrow lance-shaped sepals have a pointed tip.
Up to around 13 mm long they curve out and often back beside the pedicel.
The outer surfaces have dense hairs.
The 5 free overlapping, obovate petals are asymmetric with one side longer than the other.
From a narrow base they are around 1.5 cm long and 2.5 cm wide at the top.
The white or pale pink petals spread sideways forming a saucer-shaped corolla.
They may have a deeper pink base.
The petals persist turning a rust-red colour.
The staminal tube, 1 to 2 mm long has 15 stamens in 5 bundles of three.
The stamens have basifixed anthers with longitudinal slits.
The free filaments are around 10 mm long and the anthers 5 mm.
Alternating with the stamen bundles are 5 infertile staminodes with no anthers.
Spatula-shaped staminodes, up to 15 mm long have no hairs so catch no pollen.
The ovoid ovary, around 2 mm long has 5 locules each with around 4 ovules.
The style, around 15 mm long has 5 short stigma branches at the tip.
The ovary has dense hairs on the outside and some inside the locules.
Hairs on the ovary may extend onto the base of the style.
Fruit are a round or ovoid loculicidal capsule 1 to 1.5 cm long.
It has dense hairs on the outer surface and dark seeds inside.
J.F.
