I. Friis (2006) Ebenaceae Flora of Somalia 3: 6-11
Plants evergreen shrubs or small trees, up to about 12 m tall; youngshoots glabrous. Leaves dark green and glossy, alternate, subopposite or opposite, or whorled; petioles 0.1-0.3 cm long; blades very cariable in shape and size, up to 11 cm long and 4 cm wide; lower surfaces glabrous; secondary veins subprominent on upper surfaces, lees so on lower surfaces but often distinct because of pink coloration; tertiray veins usually indistinct, especially on the lower surfaces. Inflorescences 15-50 mm long, unbranched, with glabrous axes. Maleflowers up to 5 mm long; calyces about 2 mm long, saucer shaped, glabrous or with minute hairs on the margins, shallowly lobed or toothed; corollas lobed only in the upper hald, glabrous or sparsely bristly along the middle of the lobes; stamens 10-120, mostly in pairs; filaments up to 1.3 mm long; anthers up to 3 mm long, bristly, especially near the tips. Female flowers similar to the male flowers but much smaller; staminodes absent; ovaries glabrous or vovered with rought hairs. Fruits 6-8 mm in diameter.
Euclea racemosa has two subspecies but Euclea racemosa subsp. racemosa is restricted to South Africa.
Euclea racemosa subsp. schimperi has thinly leathery, obovate or oblanceolate leaves distinctly wider in the upper half than the lower half. Ovaries covered with stiff hairs. It grows in evergreen bushland at 1300-1650 m in regions N1-N3 of the Flora of Somalia and in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and is widespread from Egypt and Sudan, extending to South Africa. It also grows in Yemen and Oman.