M. Thulin (2006) Maesa, in Flora of Somalia 3:18-19
PLants trees or chrubs; bark rough or smoother, at first red-brown, later grey; branchlets with brownish hairs or glabrous. Leaves petiolate; petioles 1.5-4 cm long; blades narrowly elliptic to obate or obovate, 10-22 cm long, 3-11 cm wide, bases cuneate to roundedsubentire to coarsely and irregularly toothed distally, tips obtuse to acuminate. Inflorescences much-branched and many flowered panicles shorter than the subtending leaves; pedicels up to 1 mm long, glabrous or brownish pubescent. Flowers: calyx lobes about 1 mm long, with or without darker markings, margins minutely ciliate; corollas white or cream, with or without darker markings, 4.5-5 mm acros; corolla lobes spreading, rounded, finely toothed, more or less as long as the tubes, ,glabrous; anthers about as long as wide, on hort filaments; ovaries partly inferior; bstyles up to w mm long; stigmas obscurely to distinctly lobed. Fruits globose berries, 3.5-5 mm in diameter, sweet, yellowish brown or red when ripe; seeds 2-3 mm long.
Maesa lanceolata grows in Juniperus forest and evergreen bushland, usually along streams at 1200-1300m. It is known from region N2 in the Flora of Somalia and from Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia and is also widespread in tropical Afria and Madagascar. It also grows on the Arabian Peninsula.