Chionanthus foveolatus (commonly known as the Pock Ironwood or Bastard Ironwood) is a medium-sized, evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

, Afromontane

Afromontane

Afromontane is a term used to describe the Afrotropic subregion and its plant and animal species common to the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula...

 tree that is indigenous to South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.
C. foveolatus occurs at medium to high altitudes in habitats ranging from bushy or rocky hillsides and mountainous forests to coastal scrub. Its natural range is from Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

 in the south, across South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 as far as Limpopo in the north.

It has scaly grey bark and bears clusters of sweetly-scented, cream-white flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s from September to December.
It is related to the familiar edible Olive

Olive Tree

The Olive Tree was a denomination used for several successive centre-left Italian political coalitions from 1995 to 2007.The historical leader and ideologue of these coalitions was Romano Prodi, Professor of Economics and former leftist Christian Democrat, who invented the name and the symbol of...

, and likewise produces fleshy, ovoid, fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

s which become black when ripe.
It can be grown easily from seed. It can reach a height of about 10 metres in deep forest though it is usually considerably smaller than this, and it has a spread of about 5 metres. It grows well in full sun or semi-shade.

Description

• Family: Oleaceae
• Habit: Small tree with slender trunk, bushy crown and whippy branchlets.
• Height: Ranges from 5 to 8 metres.
• Bark: Light to dark-grey, with scattered corky spots when young
• Leaves: Opposite, simple, elliptic, glossy dark-green, with small bump or pits in the axils of the veins.
• Flower: White to cream, occasionally pink-tinged, sweetly scented, in small sprays in the leaf axils. Sept. - Dec.
• Wood: Pale brown, strong and heavy.
• Fruit: Ovoid, fleshy berry, purplish-black when mature. Nov. - July.