Grewia villosa is a shrub, often scrambling and hardly exceeding 4 m in height.

It can be seen in Ein Gedi oasis in Israel, and in South Africa, where it is common.

Its ripe copper-coloured fruits are eaten in East Africa.

The fruit of the Grewia villosa were eaten both while immature and green and also once they had ripened and hardened to a dark, reddish-brown.

The bark was stripped off and crushed in water or chewed to a pulp which was used to wash the body as well as to clean the hair and disinfect the scalp [3]