Pavetta is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It comprises about 360 species of trees, evergreen shrubs and sub-shrubs. It is found in woodlands, grasslands and thickets in sub-tropical and tropical Africa and Asia. The plants are cultivated for their simple but variable leaves, usually opposite but also occur in triple whorls. The leaves are often membranous with dark bacterial nodules. Pavetta has small, white, tubular flowers, sometimes salviform or funnel-shaped with 4 spreading petal lobes. The flowers are carried on terminal corymbs or cymes.

Pavetta gardeniifolia commonly known as Christmas Bride’s Bush or Christmas Bush in English and Kersbruidsbos in Afrikaans is usually a deciduous shrub of 3 m high x 2 m wide. Pavetta gardeniifolia may occasionally develop into a small tree up to 4 m high. The light brown bark is either smooth or slightly fissured. Leaves are scattered with dark dots (bacterial nodules). The plants flower from November to January (summer). Green pea-sized fruits ripen to shiny black from February to May (late summer to autumn). The flowers lure a variety of insects, which become food for insect-eating birds like the southern boubou. The nectar is also popular with birds. The fleshy fruits entice crested and blackcollared barbets, blackeyed bulbuls and mousebirds-and possibly many others too. People and monkeys also eat the fruits.