Where to find Mountain Cabbage-tree easily:

It has a rounded moderate canopy. It is found in a central band through most of the country from the northern parts of the Bushveld, throughout the Highveld into the Cape as far as the Langeberge, usually in mountainous or rocky places

GIFF

• This is a single-stemmed, high-branching tree, with bluish, palm-like leaves forming a rounded canopy.
• The bark is deeply fissured and corky.
• Hand-shaped Compound leaves are pale blue-grey to green and form clusters at the end of thick, stubby branchlets.
• The margins of each leaflet are so coarsely serrated that the leaflets look gnawed; they cut in deeply, but do not form actual lobes.
• Greenish-yellow flowers are densely packed in conspicuous spikes, on branched stalks, from January to April.

Seasonal Changes

Deciduous. This unique tree is easy to recognise throughout the year by its growth form and corky bark.

Growth Form

The trunk branches high up to form a canopy of variable density. Leaves grow on long leaf-stems, and the dark branches are usually very obvious between them.

Bark

See GIFF.

Leaves

The leaves with long leaf-stems are crowded towards the end of the twigs. The 7 - 9 leaflets all grow out of the same point on the leaf-stem. Leaflets are essentially long and elliptic. They taper towards the base and have a pointed tip ­(600 mm; leaflet: 100 - 300 x 20 - 60 mm).

Flowers

The small flowers grow at the end of the branchlets (Jan - Apr) (Spike: 25 - 50 mm).

Fruit

The small, berry-like fruit is crowded tightly in spikes. It is purple when ripe (May - Jun) (Spike: 60 mm; fruit: 6 mm).

This can be an attractive plant in a larger garden. It is frost- and drought-resistant, but grows slowly.

This tree provided brake blocks for ox wagons.

This is a good fodder tree. Goats like the leaves of the younger, smaller trees.