Rhaphithamnus spinosus (A. L. Juss.) Moldenke

An evergreen shrub or small tree, ultimately 20 or 25 ft high, with a dense growth and very leafy branches; young shoots covered with erect, bristly down and armed with axillary spines, which on the year-old branches become 1⁄2 to 1 in. long, slender and needle-like. Leaves opposite, often in threes, set about 1⁄4 in. apart, 1⁄4 to 3⁄4 in. long, 1 to 1⁄2 in. wide, broadly ovate, pointed, rounded at the base, dark green and glabrous above, pale beneath, with at first minute bristles especially on the midrib, also on the very short stalk. Flowers pale blue, produced in April singly or in pairs in the leaf-axils of the previous summer’s growth, each on a very short, bristly stalk. Corolla slender, tubular, 1⁄2 in. long; calyx bell-shaped, 1⁄12 in. long, toothed; stamens four, included within the corolla. Fruits 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 in. across, globose, bright blue.

Native of Chile and Argentina; introduced by W. Lobb about 1843. It is only hardy at Kew against a wall, and one must go to Ireland or the south-west to see it at its best. Its blue fruits are even more ornamental than its flowers.