Grewia ferruginea Hochst. ex A.Rich.
G. beguinotii Lanza, G. beguinotii var. parcepilosa Cufod.
Shrub or small tree up to 6 m in height. Youngest shoots with tomentum of stellate hairs rusty in colour. Leaves ovate-elliptic, acute apex, densely crenulate, 10-12.7 cm long, c. 5 cm wide, densely covered with small stellate hairs on the underside; petioles, pedicels and the outer surface of the calyx are densely covered with a rusty coloured stellate tomentum. Flowers up to 3.8-5 cm in diameter, in groups of 3, central flower opens first. Corolla with lanceolate petals, shorter than the calyx. Calyx with oblong-lanceolate sepals. Fruits fleshy, subglobose, glabrous, 1-1.2 cm wide, with 4 lobules, each 5-6 mm wide. Seed 1.
Flowering:
In autumn-winter in areas close to the coast of the Red Sea.
Fruiting:
Late autumn and winter.
Habitat:
Riparian forests, gallery forests near lakes, savannahs, on very diverse terrain but generally on sandy soils, in dry and subdesert areas. With an altitudinal range of 1,000-2,700 m.
Distribution:
Eastern areas of tropical Africa, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya.
Observations:
Taxon closely related to G. stolzii Ulbr., and it could also be confused with albino forms (rare) of G. similis K.Schum.
Conservation status:
Fairly rare species, but widely distributed. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.