The Flowers are in balls about 2 inches in diameter and appear in February. They fade very quickly. The flower-balls are composed of some hundreds of small flowers which seem white, as each is a yellow, tubular, 5-lobed corolla with a shiny white pistil with an acorn-shaped stigma which is very long. There are 5 small stamens attached to the inside of the corolla, which do not appear. The flowers are sweet-scented.
The Fruits vary somewhat in size and shape but are roughly round or oval, 2-3 inches in diameter and dark red-brown with the surface pitted with the pentagonal scars of the flowers. There is a crimson flesh surrounding a mass of small seeds round a pith centre. They are edible and have a not unpleasant, sweet, acid flavour. They ripen towards the end of the year but can be found for many months on the tree and fall to rot on the ground.
Uses.—A medicine for stomach pains is made from the fruits.
SCLEROCARYA BIRROEA Hochst.—Danya. ANACARDIACEAE.
This very common tree was, until 1922, considered a species of Spondias, from its resemblance to S. lutea, a species occurring commonly further south. It is of medium size, up to 40 feet in height with girths of 6-8 feet. It grows on almost any soil and flourishes in loose sand or dry barren situations where it can be found almost as pure forest. The short heavy bole gives a large volume of timber, but the bole length rarely exceeds 12 feet from which point the much bent branches form a large, round, open crown giving little shade. The pinnate foliage, red flower-spikes or yellow plums distinguish it. Owing to its use for native mortars enormous waste takes place, one mortar being carved from trees which will provide three or four, the rest being allowed to rot or burn. Quite large limbs can be pulled off by hand as they snap very readily. It is not very fast growing and seedlings branch at ground level. Seedlings, however, are very hardy, sending a thickened tap-root several feet into the ground the first year.
The Bark is light grey, sometimes smooth and silvery, and large scales, which turn up at their edges and give the stem a ragged appearance, leave the stem smooth again after falling. The slash is salmon pink to red and spongy and fibrous in composition.
The Wood has a dirty white ground colour with a well-marked reddish grain in bands and streaks, with dark brown patches. In transverse section the pores are small, not very numerous, evenly distributed, mostly single with a few double pores and small nests, in oblique rows, the soft tissue very poorly developed as fine lines imperfectly connecting the pores. The rays are fine, closely and regularly spaced and fairly straight, and they show as light-reflecting bands in radial section, and as a fine stippling in tangential section. The wood is soft, coarse-grained, sawing roughly and picking up, often full of small knots and liable to small borer-beetle attacks. It is fairly durable if well seasoned and weighs 36 lbs. a cubic foot. Good sizes are obtainable.
The Leaves are pinnate, some 9 inches long with 8-9 pairs and a terminal leaflet, rounded, with the venation much branched and prominent on both sides. They are bluish-green with a slight bloom and tend to fold up along the mid-rib.