The Leaves are in pairs, each pair at right angles to the next above and below though a twisting occurs to enable the leaves to turn their faces to the light. The leaf is 2-3 inches long and 1-1¼ inches wide, oval in shape, narrow at the base, broad at the tip, a dull, smooth pale green above, paler beneath, the venation prominent on the under side only and composed of 3 main nerves, the laterals leaving the main rib about a third of the way up. The secondary venation is cellular and delicate. The stalk is dorsally flattened.
The Flowers are typically in threes on short stalks and are borne in small clusters, especially on last season’s wood below the new season’s leaves, in April-June. Each has a cup-shaped 4-lobed calyx, a tubular, 4-lobed, yellowish corolla, 4 stamens with anthers which protrude slightly from a ring of hairs closing the mouth of the corolla and a pistil whose black stigma also protrudes.
The Fruits are a small edition of those of S. spinosa. They are spherical, 1½-2 inches in diameter, ripening from a shiny blue or grey-green to a bright yellow, with a thick “shell” in which are some 6-9 seeds, each in its own sweet, sticky, orange-coloured pulp. The seeds are ½ inch in diameter, rounded, flattened, concave one side, convex the other, not hard, and readily cut in two. The fruit has a small, blunt “nose,” and ripens about June.
SWARTZIA MADAGASCARIENSIS Desv.—Gamma fada, Bayama, Bogo zage, Gwazkiya. LEGUMINOSAE.
This is generally quite a small tree, some 15-20 feet high, but will attain a height of 35-40 feet with girths of 4-5 feet or more. It is erect, with straight stem and ascending branches which in older trees terminate in pendulous twigs from which hang the long, soft, pinnate leaves. Its range does not extend very far north and it is particularly common in Bauchi, both on the plateau at some 4,000 feet altitude and in the lower plains.
The Bark is dark grey and shaggy with long ragged scales which fall in large pieces. That of small trees is light grey and smooth. The slash is yellow.
The Leaves are pinnate, with alternate or opposite leaflets, averaging 11 in number, the whole some 6-8 inches long, the short-stalked leaflets oblong with rounded base and rounded, slightly cleft tip, 2-3 inches long and an inch or more wide. The upper surface is smooth, the lower covered with silky hairs. The colour is rather pale green.
The Flowers are most distinctive with a large rounded, wavy-edged petal, white, with greenish-yellow base and silky hairs on the back. The globular calyx splits into cupped sections as the flower expands, the stamens, varying in number, some 15 or so, are yellow and the ovary and pistil is curved. The whole is on a stalk up to 2 inches in length. The flowers are solitary or in small racemes.