The Flowers which appear from December to February are in axillary spikes up to 3 inches in length crowded with cream-coloured, slightly scented flowers, each of which has a 4-pointed calyx, 4 minute petals, 8 stamens and a short pistil rising from a calyx full of white hairs.
The Fruits are 4-winged, 1-1¼ inches in diameter and length, conspicuous by their size, tough texture, and the rich, reddish-purple colour softened by a grey bloom. They are very numerous, crowded, heavy and hard.
COMBRETUM LECANANTHUM Engl. & Diels.—Chiriri, Dagera. COMBRETACEAE.
A very common tree of the more open, dry savannahs and occurring on hard and barren or dry and sandy soils, often in such quantities as to form almost pure forests. It occurs mixed with the shrubby Combretum species or by itself in belts and patches on slightly better soil than is required to support the latter. It is about 20-25 feet high but a full-grown example will reach 40 feet with a 5 feet bole girth. The stem is rarely straight, often leaning or twisted and branching low down. The crown is either of erect branches and twigs, or the latter may as often as not droop and hang vertically downwards.
The Bark is smooth, grey-brown or rust-red in colour, with hardly any scales, but of a rather fibrous appearance. From it, in the hot season, large quantities of gum exude, white, yellow or red-brown, poor in quality, not brittle, but rubber-like, melting in moist heat and drying only in the dry season. The gum forms strange shapes, from nodules to long slender spirals. The bark is very thin. The slash is crimson, with yellow centre.
The Wood is a dirty white or cream colour. In transverse section it is much darker and the pores are very small and in little wavy lines and festoons, the rays exceedingly fine and close light lines. In the plank the pores are fine dark lines. In the green state the wood is so tough as to blunt axes but when it dries it loses its strength and is often completely destroyed by borer beetle. An unsatisfactory wood of no value. Weight 56 lbs. a cubic foot. The name “kariye gatari,” or “break axe” is given to it.
The Leaves vary largely in shape and in proportion of length to width. They average 4-5 inches long and 2-2½ inches wide, tapering both ends, pointed, shining above, paler beneath, the venation simple and the lateral nerves inclined far forward. They are in pairs and tend to lie in the same plane.
The Flowers are in branched spikes, cream-coloured and sweet-scented. They appear in November and may flower up to July. Each has the 4-pointed calyx, 4 minute petals, 8 stamens and short pistil common in this genus. There are bright orange glands inside the calyx.