Ruschia spinosa(L.) Dehn

WFO wfo-0001238691 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / 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.

Ruschia spinosa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2018-05-24 / obs. 19273036
Ruschia spinosa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. b Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15421613
Ruschia spinosa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. c Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15161641
Ruschia spinosa, photographed by linkie
fig. d linkie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 52210175
Ruschia spinosa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. e Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19273090
Ruschia spinosa, photographed by Dave Brown
fig. f Dave Brown, CC0 1.0 / obs. 172289897
Ruschia spinosa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. g Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15421565
Ruschia spinosa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15271636

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 2 botanical countries

Regions where Ruschia spinosa is native: Cape Provinces, Namibia Cape ProvincesNamibia
Native distribution of Ruschia spinosa, 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
Cape Provinces CPP AFRICA
Namibia NAM

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 18 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.

  • Eberlanzia aculeata (N.E.Br.) Schwantes
  • Eberlanzia albertensis (L.Bolus) L.Bolus
  • Eberlanzia globularis (L.Bolus) L.Bolus
  • Eberlanzia hospitalis (Dinter) Schwantes
  • Eberlanzia macroura (L.Bolus) L.Bolus
  • Eberlanzia micrantha (A.Berger) Schwantes
  • Eberlanzia mucronifera (Haw.) Schwantes
  • Eberlanzia spinosa (L.) Schwantes
  • Mesembryanthemum aculeatum N.E.Br.
  • Mesembryanthemum hospitale Dinter
  • Mesembryanthemum mucroniferum Haw.
  • Mesembryanthemum mucroniflorum Sond.
  • Mesembryanthemum pulverulentum Willd.
  • Mesembryanthemum spinosum L.
  • Mesembryanthemum spinosum var. micranthum Pax
  • Ruschia albertensis L.Bolus
  • Ruschia globularis L.Bolus
  • Ruschia macroura L.Bolus

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.