Canthium ciliatum is a hardy shrub or small tree found on forest margins and rock outcrops in the eastern regions of South Africa, and in Swaziland and Lesotho. It is easily grown from seed.

Usually a shrub, sometimes a small tree 3-4 m in height. Bark dark grey. Branches smooth or hairy, often armed with paired slender straight spines. Leaves opposite, spaced along new growth at the ends of the stems or clustered on dwarf spur-branchlets, ovate to elliptic, 5-30 x 4-20 mm, dark green above, paler below, soft-textured, with short soft hairs along the veins; midrib and lateral veins distinct, domatia occasional or absent, apex tapering acutely to broadly; base rounded; margin fringed with hairs; petiole about 1-3 mm long; stipules triangular, hairy. Flowers small, cream to greenish, corolla about 4 mm long, constricted just below the mouth, solitary or in pairs, on a long slender stalk (Oct – Feb). Fruit ovoid, asymmetric, with the stalk on 1 side or squarish, about 13 mm long, slightly tapering to the base, 2-lobed at the apex, dark brown to blackish and slightly wrinkled, resembling goat or sheep droppings (Feb – May).

Occurs from Eastern Cape to the eastern Limpopo Province, mainly inland in evergreen forest and in scrub on rocky outcrops on grassy mountain slopes.

Canthium comes from the Malabar (Indian) name canti for a species of this genus (Turkey-berry tree).

Canthium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It comprises shrubs and small trees. The leaves are deciduous and the stems are usually thorny. They are native to India, Sri Lanka, and tropical East Africa. About 52 species are known.

It has edible fruit. Roots are used by traditional healers to induce trance states before divining dances. The Sotho traditionally administers bark and leaf infusions as enemas for pain believed to be caused by beetles present in the abdomen as a result of sorcery. Plants are also used as protective charms in graves to prevent disturbances of newly interred bodies.