Sebsebe Demissew (1999) Tiliaceae 2: 5-21

Plants shrubs, 1-6 m tall; branches grey to brown, glabrous to perulent, with numerous whie lenticels. Leaves petiolate; petioles 5-12 mm long, pubescent; blades green to pale green, glabrous to pubescent, ovate to orbicular, 1-4.5 cm long, 1-3.8 cm wide, bases rounded to subcordate, margins crenate-serrate, tops rounded to acute. Inflorescences leaf-opposed, of solitary flowers; peduncles 2-10 mm long. Flowers pedicellate; pedicels 4-10 mm long; sepals 10-15 mm long; petals white, elliptic-oblong toobovate, 7-10 mm long, bases with nectar-producing claws; ovaries 2-celled, with 4 ovules per cell; styles with 4 wide stigma lobes. Fruits 2-4-lobed, each lobe 5-6 mm in diameter' stones smooth. 

Grewia tenax grows in acacia-Commiphora scrub, acacia woodland, seasonally flooded bushland, and limestone sloes, on sony or rocky groun, in red, sandy soulsm and on alluvial sandy plains at 30-1310 m. It is a widspread species, growing from Eritrea in the North to South Africa in the South and from Senegal to Arabia. It is known from all of the eight regions used in the Flora of Somalia.

The fruits of Grewia tenax are edible and the roots are used for poultices, a use that is not good for the plant. 

©Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; reproduced with permission.

Key to the species of Grewia in Somaliland and Somalia.