A new species of Gymnosporia (Celastraceae) from southern Africa

Gymnosporia gariepensis Jordaan (Celastraceae), here described as a new species, is known only from the Gariep Center, an arid region of high floristic endemism in the northwestern corner of the Northern Cape (South Africa) and adjacent parts of southern Namibia. An illustration and a distribution map are provided. Diagnostic characters include: the robust thorns that terminate the short, abbreviated lateral branches on older shoots, and the capsules that are reddish, smooth, and obconic-trigonous. The new species is related to G. tenuispina (Sonder) Szyszylowicz, a species with slender thorns with which it shares arils that are reduced to a fleshy rim at the base of the seeds.