Gymnosporia nemorosa is a spiny, somewhat sprawling evergreen shrub or small tree with drooping branches growing to some 5 m tall and found along forest edges in Mpumalanga, Eswatini, KwaZulu-Natal south to the Garden Route in the Southern Cape.

[2] Its fragrant white, unisexual flower clusters grow in the axils of leaves on lateral shoots resembling spines.

Dusky-pink, pear-shaped, pendulous fruits are about 15mm in length and the same in diameter, dehiscing along three longitudinal lines to produce 3 valves curling back from the distal end to reveal orange arils enclosing the seeds.

Leaves are alternate or tufted, hairless, leathery, 25-50mm long, with slightly serrate margins, ovate to round in shape, glossy and dark green above, paler beneath, emarginate to acute, depressed apex.

[6] Celastrus nemorosus - Glabrous, spiny; spines strong; leaves tufted, solitary on the twigs, elliptical, rounded, obtuse, or shortly emarginate, margined, dentato-serrate, shortly cuneate at base, sub-coriaceous, veiny; panicles axillary, cymose, shorter than the leaf, or equalling it; capsules trigonous, 3–2-seeded.