A large tree found in the bush along the river banks in southern Africa.

Common names

(Afrikaans

Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

);
(Zulu

Zulu language

Zulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa as well as being understood by over 50% of the population...

);
(Pedi

Northern Sotho language

Northern Sotho , also inaccurately known by the name of a major dialect, Pedi or sePedi, is one of the official languages of South Africa, and is spoken by 4,208,980 people — in the South African provinces of Gauteng,...

);
River combretum, River Bushwillow.
C. glomeruliflorum

Description

A medium to large tree 7 to 12 m in height. Straight or multi-stemmed with dense spreading crown. The bark is a smooth pale gray or yellow brown that flakes with age to expose pale bark patches with large lumps (not galls) sometimes occur on older trunks and main branches.

Leaves: Simple leaves, opposite, elliptic with tapering base and apex (50 x 20 mm)upper surface usually without hairs undersurface has hairs . The rib and lateral veins of the leaf are very conspicuous. Deciduous, leaves turn yellow and red in autumn (The specific name erythrophyllum means red leaf)

Flowers: Greenish-yellow in dense auxilliary spikes about 10 mm in diameter appearing after the first leaves (spring-early summer).

Fruit: 4-winged fruit yellow to brown in colour 10 to 15 mm in length.

Distribution

Found in riverine bush or where there is sufficient ground water in Botswana; Mozambique; South Africa; Swaziland; Zambia; Zimbabwe.

Ecology

Wasps lay their eggs in the walls of the fruit and the larvae feed on the seeds inside the fruit. The Southern Black Tit taps the fruit to check if there are larvae inside, when discovered they open the fruit and eat the larvae.

Combretum erythrophyllum leaves are browsed by giraffe

Giraffe

The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...

, elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

, bushbuck

Bushbuck

The bushbuck is the most widespread antelope in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is found in rain forests, montane forests, forest-savanna mosaics and bush savannaforest and woodland. Recently, genetic studies have shown that the bushbuck, is in fact a complex of two geographically and phenotypically...

 and nyala

Nyala

The Nyala is a Southern African antelope. It is a spiral-horned dense-forest antelope that is uncomfortable in open spaces and is most often seen at water holes. Nyalas live alone or in small family groups of up to 10 individuals.The male stands up to 110 cm , the female is up to 90 cm ...

.
Frost and drought hardy.

Medicinal uses

• The roots (regarded as poisonous) are used as a purgative and to treat venereal diseases.
• The bark is mixed with other herbs to make a decoction that is drunk in the morning and evening, quarter of a cup for sores.
• The fruit are regarded as poisonous and reputedly cause hiccups.