10+ Bowkeria verticillata Seeds - Natal shell-flower bush- Indigenous Evergreen Flowering Tree Shrub

Bowkeria verticillata Seeds

Natal shell-flower bush; Natalse skulpblombos

Bowkeria is a small genus in the Stilbaceae family with three species confined to the eastern regions of South Africa. It was named in 1859 in recognition of the contribution of the well-known naturalists, Col. Henry Bowker and his sister Elizabeth, to South African botany.

Bowkeria verticillata commonly known as Natal shell-flower bush and Natalse skulpblombos is a decorative shrub which can be used to landscape your garden, with softy quilted leaves and pure white, and scented flowers. Bowkeria vercillata is a multi- or single-stemmed shrub about 3 to 5 m tall, occasionally tree like. The stems are grey, branchlets are reddish and twigs with raised white dots. Oblong elliptical leaves have entire or finely scalloped margins, sometimes hairy beneath and are borne in whorls of three to four. It is evergreen and the foliage makes a dense screen with a smell like other Bowkeria species. The pure white, scented flowers, are sticky and glint in the sunshine, they are borne in pairs in the leaf axils, from November to January. The inside of the flower shows a pattern of red marks which are probably a guide to the oil hairs for the pollinators. The fruit is a thinly woody, oval capsule and splits into three valves during December to April. The fruits look as though they are made of polished cardboard and after having released the dust-like seed will remain on the plant for some time.