Bowkeria verticillata, the Natal shell-flower or southern shell-flower, is a shrub or small tree (SA Tree List No. 673).  Its habitat is mountainous terrain of KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Lesotho, usually above 600 m above sea level.

It bears attractive white flowers in axillary pairs through the warmer months, i.e. spring, summer and autumn. The leaves grow in whorls or opposite. They are elliptic or ovate with coarsely veined surfaces and toothed margins. The fruit is an ovoid woody capsule that splits open in three sections when ripe. The tree grows fast and is moderately frost-tolerant (Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; Coates Palgrave, 2002).