Olinia ventosa is an evergreen forest tree 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...

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Olinia ventosa is a native of the southern and eastern coastal regions of South Africa, from the Cape Peninsula

Cape Peninsula

The Cape Peninsula is a generally rocky peninsula that juts out for 75 km into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope...

 to southern KwaZulu-Natal

KwaZulu-Natal

KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994, the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and the homeland of KwaZulu....

. Its natural habitat is afro-montane forests

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...

and especially the forest margins, as well as coastal scrub and rocky hillsides.

This can make an attractive evergreen shade tree for larger gardens. It is very fast-growing, hardy and able to tolerate poor and stony soils. As with most trees, it should not be planted too close to buildings or paved areas.
The flowers are bisexual and seed is readily produced, but is difficult to germinate as it has a very tough coating that first needs to disintegrate. Once germinated however, the young plants grow very rapidly.