Melolobium microphyllum(L.f.) Eckl. & Zeyh.

WFO wfo-0000211035 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Melolobium microphyllum, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. a Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-07 / obs. 205708945
Melolobium microphyllum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. b Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 179749008
Melolobium microphyllum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. c Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 112723608
Melolobium microphyllum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 16146423
Melolobium microphyllum, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. e Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15100844
Melolobium microphyllum, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. f Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205729695
Melolobium microphyllum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. g Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19250819
Melolobium microphyllum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 16161347

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 7 botanical countries

Regions where Melolobium microphyllum is native: Botswana, Cape Provinces, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Namibia, Northern Provinces BotswanaCape ProvincesFree StateKwaZulu-NatalLesothoNamibiaNorthern Provinces
Native distribution of Melolobium microphyllum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Botswana BOT AFRICA
Cape Provinces CPP
Free State OFS
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 13 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Dichilus candicans E.Mey.
  • Dichilus microphyllus (L.f.) E.Mey.
  • Melolobium accedens Burtt Davy
  • Melolobium burchellii N.E.Br.
  • Melolobium canescens (E.Mey.) Benth.
  • Melolobium decumbens (E.Mey.) Benth.
  • Melolobium glanduliferum Dümmer
  • Melolobium microphyllum var. decumbens (E.Mey.) Harv.
  • Melolobium mixtum Dümmer
  • Ononis microphylla L.f.
  • Sphingium canescens E.Mey.
  • Sphingium decumbens E.Mey.
  • Sphingium microphyllum (L.f.) E.Mey.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.