The tough, round, leathery leaves are usually dark green, but can be copper, orange or scarlet coloured depending on growth.

The bunches of small, bisexual flowers have a strong, but pleasant fragrance, and the fruits are berries that appear as green and then gradually darken to purple and black.

Here it grows in a wide variety of habitats, from deep Afromontane forest to coastal dunes and rocky mountain slopes.

Cape saffron has been used locally for centuries for its beautiful, hard wood, which assumes a yellowish-orange colour and was traditionally valued for furniture.

In exposed positions, in direct sun or wind, it will tend to grow shorter, lower and denser.