The Leaves are some 18 inches long, pinnate, with some 4 pairs and a terminal leaflet. These are spear-shaped, about 4 inches long and 2 inches wide, with very short, thick stalks. They are dark green, densely covered with short hairs and limp and flaccid. The young leaf shoots are a reddish-brown and densely pubescent.
The Flowers are in spikes, the male and female on separate trees. The male are in 5-6 inch spikes, up to a dozen spikes at a twig tip, often so numerous on the leafless tree as to render it conspicuous from a great distance. They appear from January to April, and are scented. The flowers are in clusters round the spike, not completely covering it. Each has a 4-lobed calyx, 4 small petals, 8 erect stamens and the rudiments of an ovary with 4 stigmas. The flowers fall from the spikes, leaving them bare. The female flowers are on shorter spikes, the flowers are fewer in number and evenly distributed on the spike. Each has a 4-lobed calyx, 4 small petals and an ovary with 4 stigmas. They are not scented. Both spikes are very pubescent.
The Fruits are nuts, flattened ovoids with the stigmas prominent at the tip. They ripen about March to May and are reddish purple, the flesh very resinous and the white kernel attached to the top. They are ½ inch long and are borne in heavy clusters of spikes, generally erect and stiffer than those of O. acida.
Uses.—No part of the tree is edible as in the case of O. acida.
ORMOCARPUM BIBRACTEATUM Baker.—Faskara giwa. Tsa. LEGUMINOSAE.
A small, erect tree up to some 25 feet in height with 1-2 feet girth, locally very plentiful but otherwise infrequent, e.g., in the Anka district of Sokoto it occurs in vast numbers, but nowhere else in the province, and in one or two places in Bauchi small clumps of it are seen. At first sight it is very like an Acacia, with its erect branches and pinnate leaves. The stem branches generally low down, occasionally at a height of 8-10 feet, and the branches are vertical, so that the tree has no width of crown. Owing to the scarcity of the smaller branches the vertical ones are crowded with leaves, and from February to April with flowers, for several feet, there being no side twigs, these being replaced by small shoots covered with bracts.
The Bark is silvery grey with a soft sheen, smooth and very thick, large scales peeling off in season. The effect of fire on young stems is to produce great bosses of light brown cork, often charred. The slash is yellow.
The Leaves are about 2-3 inches long, pinnate, with some 6-8 opposite or sub-opposite leaflets and a terminal leaflet. These are ¼-⅜ inch long and about ³⁄₁₆ inch broad, oval, with or without a slightly notched tip in which the mid-rib protrudes slightly. They are grey-green and hairy and each springs from between a pair of bracts on the twig.