The Bark is light grey and very thick with soft cork and large rectangular scales. This is, however, largely due to fires.
The Leaves are 4-5 inches long and 2-3 inches broad with a stalk 2-3 inches long. When there is a single leaf it is rounded ovate, with slightly cordate base, but if tri-foliolate the leaflets are obovate with tapering base. The margins are waved. The upper surface is dark green with hairs scattered all over the surface and the under side is densely covered, especially on the venation, with hairs, this being far more marked when the leaf is younger, when the venation is very prominent, though it is grooved on the upper surface. The leaves are generally in whorls of three at each stem node. When crushed they give off a strong sage-like odour.
The Flowers are in cymes in the leaf axils, on long stalks, either in whorls of three or pairs. Each has a 5-pointed bell-shaped calyx, an irregular tubular corolla, the lip large and mauve, the remaining lobes greenish and pubescent, 4 stamens pressed up against the top of the corolla and a small, curved white pistil with bifid stigma.
The Fruits are egg-shaped, about ¾-1 inch long, ripening from green to black, spotted with lenticels and cupped for about one-third of their length by the hairy enlarged calyx. They are fleshy drupes with a hard “stone” containing 4 cells, each with one seed. The flesh is very narrow.
XIMENIA AMERICANA Linn.—Tsada. OLACACEAE.
A small shrubby tree some 10-15 feet high, widely distributed all over the forests and sometimes found in great quantities over small areas. It does not grow in the very dry sandy or rocky northern regions. It has one or several stems from a common stock which spread out and form an open low crown of no form. It can be readily distinguished in fruit and flower.
The Bark is dark brown or almost black, with very small, close-fitting rectangular scales. That of the branches is dark grey and smooth. The slash is crimson and fibrous.
The Thorns are about ½ inch long, slender, very sharp, straight and grey in colour.