Combretaceae

• Combretum molle
• Laguncularia racemosa

• Common Name: velvet bush willow, basterrooibos
• Family: Combretaceae R. Br.

• Country of Origin: Africa
• Habitat: bush and savannah regions, often occurring on ant-hills

• Description: Combretum molle is a shrub or small, graceful, deciduous tree 3-13 m high; trunk crooked or leaning, occasionally swollen at the base, up to 30 cm in diameter. Bark grey and smooth when young, grey-brown to almost black, rough and flaking when older, twigs often with reddish hairs. Branching heavy and drooping, giving a rounded or flat-rounded, sometimes oval, crown. It may be evergreen or deciduous and yields a gum. Leaves opposite, simple, leathery, 5-17 cm long, 2.5-9 cm wide, narrowly elliptic, broadly ovate-elliptic to almost circular, with dense, grey, velvety hairs on both sides, especially below; some forms almost without hairs; margins untoothed; apex tapering, often with a short point or sometimes notched; base round, heart-shaped or slightly narrowed; divided by midrib into 2 unequal parts; margin entire; petiole thickset, 2-3 mm long; net-veining conspicuous, especially on the under surface. Individual flowers small, on bare branches; pale cream or greenish-yellow, sometimes with a reddish tinge; heavily scented, borne singly in the axils of the leaves; in dense, axillary, often branched spikes, 4-9 cm long. The short-stalked flowers are borne on a central stalk 3-7 cm long. Bracts present. Fruits 1.4-2 (max. 2.5) x 1.5-2 cm; yellowish-green flushed with red, drying to golden reddish-brown; borne abundantly, some old fruits remaining on the tree into the next flowering season; 4-winged, the wings pale yellow-brown, rounded, with shallow notches at top and bottom. Combretum was the name given by Pliny to a particular climbing plant, the identity of which has been lost in time. The specific name is the Latin word ‘mollis’, meaning ‘soft’, presumably because of the softness of the leaves.

  It is a tree of the bush and savannah regions of Africa generally, often occurring on ant-hills, in semi-evergreen thickets and frequently associated with quartzite formations.