The Thorns are in pairs on the white twigs. The upper thorn is long and straight and the lower is shorter and sharply recurved. They are light brown and the leaf rises between them with the flowers in the leaf axil. The straight thorn points well forward.
The Wood is pale red, often with wide, brown discolorations; the sapwood is white. In transverse section the rings are only faintly marked; the pores are very small, numerous and single: the rays, invisible to the unaided eye, are extremely fine and close together, showing as small reddish bands in radial section. In vertical section the pores are long and fine, the grain close, and the colour banded in faint shades of the ground colour. The wood saws and planes well, is sound, though liable to knots, fairly heavy and moderately hard. The weight is 50 lbs. a cubic foot.
The Leaves, though they are arranged spirally round the twigs, tend to assume one plane. The upper surface is bright green with a bluish bloom and the venation roughens the underside. They are 1-2 inches long and ¾-1 inch wide, the palmate venation composed of three principal nerves, spreading from the base.
The Flowers are in small clusters in the leaf axils, on a common stalk which divides into a number of more slender stalks each bearing one flower. Each is ¼ inch in diameter, with a flat, 5-pointed calyx, 5 minute petals and 5 stamens, and a bifid stigma round which is a raised disc which turns brown. The colour of the flower parts is green, and the flowering season is from October to January.
The Fruits are small, light brown drupes about ¾ inch in diameter with a sweet, edible flesh, juicy, then turning dry and mealy, and a hard stone of large size for the fruit. There is often a very heavy crop and they resemble cherries, ripening from November onwards.
Uses.—On account of its strength and supposed immunity from white ants the wood is used for the rafters of flat-roofed mud houses.
The fruits are eaten fresh. The leaves, besides providing fodder for goats and cattle, are crushed and applied to cure a skin disease.
