Combretum celastroides

Combretum celastroides Welw. ex Laws.

Common names

Trailing bushwillow, jesse bush Combretum (English); bwembya, montamfumu, mutetya, mutala (Bemba); kalamalama (Kunda); lusaka (Nyanja).

General description and distinguishing characteristics

A shrub or climber up to 9 m tall. Bark creamy-brown to grey, rough and shallowly fissured or smooth. Leaves simple, opposite to sub-opposite, 2.5-14 x 1-8 cm, leathery to papery, elliptic to oblong-elliptic with a bluntly acuminate drip tip. Leaf hairless to hairy with reddish, golden or silvery scales on the lower leaf surface. Petiole 2.5-20 mm long. Flowers white, cream or yellow, sweetly scented and produced in spikes in the axils of the upper leaves (October-February). Fruit small, 1.5 cm diameter, four-winged, with a red-brown or golden satin sheen and a persistent peg at the top (May-August).

Range and habitat

Combretum celastroides is distributed in Angola, Congo, Tanzania and southwards, particularly in river valleys. In the Luangwa valley, Combretum celastroides occurs in riverine fringe woodland and thicket. In the North Luangwa NP, this species can be co-dominant with Combretum elaeagnoides on sand away from the river.

© Photo: Bart Wursten, http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/