Mackaya bella is a popular garden ornamental and can be purchased in almost any local nursery in South Africa. It makes a stunning display if planted in a pot and can also serve for screening in a semi-shaded area.

Mackaya bella occurs naturally in the provinces of Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo in South Africa, and in Eswatini. It grows as an undershrub or small tree in evergreen forest, often along the edges of streams, to about 2 000 m altitude. This plant is endemic to this region, i.e. it occurs naturally nowhere else in the world except in southern Africa.

In the garden, forest bell bush should be planted in well-drained soil, with plenty of compost. Water well in summer, but less frequently in winter. To encourage bushiness plants should be pruned often. Mackaya bella is frost tender and it is advisable to plant it in a protected spot in cold regions. If is frosted, it should be drastically pruned to encourage new growth from the base. It should also be sheltered from strong winds, such as Cape Town’s ‘south-easter’.

Mackaya bella performs best in warm, frost free, sub-tropical to temperate regions.

It is a desirable and rewarding garden plant, which thrives in shade but flowers best with more sun, although too much sun will cause leaves to yellow.

Growing Mackaya bella is easy from semi-hardwood cuttings taken in spring or autumn.

he leaves are dark green, shiny, simple, oppositely arranged, up to 170 × 40 mm, elliptic, the apex tapering to a drip tip and the base tapering, margins irregularly scalloped or widely toothed. The midrib and veins are raised on the underside of the leaves, and domatia (small, hairy pockets) are usually found in the axils of the veins.

The beautiful Blue Pansy Butterfly caterpillars (Precis oenone oenone) feed on this shrub.

n spring to early summer (Aug. to Dec), it has beautiful, large, mauve to white flowers marked with fine purple-pink lines, in open terminal sprays up to 150 mm long. The flower is tubular, about 50 mm long, made up of 5 lobes, flaring towards the mouth and becoming bell-like. There are only 2 fertile stamens, and the ovary is 2-chambered.

The flowers are visited by honey bees and carpenter bees. The markings on the flowers guide the bees to the nectar.