Uses.—The bark is stripped for fibre and the stems used entire for binding the rafters of grass roofed houses or split for basket making. The stems are so tough that an axe or matchet will as often as not fail to cut through, but split the stem.
COMBRETUM VERTICILLATUM Engl. & Diels.—Farin Taramniya. COMBRETACEAE.
This is one of the commonest of the larger Combretum species, especially in the drier savannahs. It is particularly common in Sokoto Province and can be distinguished by the grey, dusty-looking leaves. There are two common forms of growth. The more common is that with a bole from 5-10 feet long, or several stems from ground level, and a round straggling open crown with the twigs drooping low down. The other is the tall, erect stem up to 40 feet in height, branching to within a few feet of the ground but having a cylindrical crown composed of erect limbs terminating in long slender branches of great length extending high into the air or dividing into numerous drooping flaccid twigs. The heavy leaves sway and weight down the weak twigs which can be bent to a circle without breaking. The species grows in the poorest sandy soil.
The Bark is pale grey or brown with very small, crisp scales scattered all over it, there being wide spaces between the scales, especially in the spring. The scales are dotted with small rust-coloured lenticels. The bark is sometimes cream-coloured. The bole is rarely cylindrical, but most often columnar and having rounded root flanges. The slash is red-brown.
The Wood is yellow or greenish-yellow. In transverse section the pores are small, single or in small groups, and the rings are very faint, the rays hardly visible, except as small brown bands in radial section. In the plank the pores are brown and open and the grain irregular, with black lines, flecks and brown patches. An unsatisfactory wood, cross-grained and tough, but strong, hard and fairly sound. Difficult to saw and plane. Weight 55 lbs. a cubic foot.
The Leaves vary much in size from 3 inches long and 2 inches wide to 5 inches long and 2½ inches wide. The base may be slightly cordate or narrowing and the tip is generally abruptly pointed. The margin is wavy, the leaf rarely flat and the foliage is very subject to attacks by insects and is much contorted, indented and disfigured. The upper surface has a dusty grey bloom and the lower surface is grey. The venation is raised on both sides of the leaf. The whole is soft and velvety to the touch. There is a ¼ inch stalk.
The Flowers are yellowish and in racemes, the spikes 1-2 inches long. They first appear when the tree is leafless from December onwards and are scented. Each consists of a 4-lobed calyx, 4 small white, recurved petals and 8 stamens opposite sepals and petals.
The Fruits are 4-winged, 1-1¼ inches long, all shades of red till they are ripe, when they turn brown. The seed is long and 4-angled.