Combretum psidioides Welw.[Agg]

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Photo: Bart Wursten
Chesa Forest Land, Umguza District.

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Synonyms:	Combretum holosericeum sensu Laws. p.p.
Common names:	Peeling-twig Combretum (English)
Frequency:
Status:	Native
Description:	Semi-deciduous shrub or tree; bark grey and more or less fissured and flaking; young branchlets with bark distinctly peeling off, revealing a reddish-brown under bark. Leaves opposite, narrowly to broadly elliptic-oblong up to 26 × 16 cm but usually 6-10 cm long and 3-6 cm wide, pubescence variable depending on the subspecies but often more densely when young, inconspicuously covered with scales beneath and with conspicuous net-veining, especially beneath; margin entire, often rolled under; petiole stout, up to 10 mm long. Flowers in dense axillary spikes, up to c. 10 cm long but mostly 4-6 cm long, greenish-yellow to yellow, appearing just before or with the new leaves, sweetly scented; petals small, sometimes ciliate at the apex. Fruit 4-winged, as long as wide, 2-3 cm, sticky and bright red when young, drying to tan-brown.
Notes:	Only subsp. psidioides is known with certainty from Botswana.
Derivation of specific name:	psidioides: resembling the genus Psidium, i.e the Guava, probably because of the peeling bark on the branchlets.
Habitat:	In various types of woodland but often on Kalahari sand in drier areas of lower altitude.
Flowering time:
Worldwide distribution:	Angola, DRC, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia.
Botswana distribution:	SE
Growth form(s):
Endemic status:
Red data list status:
Insects associated with this species:
Spot characters:	Display spot characters for this species
Content last updated:	Friday 24 February 2017
Literature:	Coates Palgrave, K. (revised and updated by Meg Coates Palgrave) (2002). Trees of Southern Africa 3rd edition. Struik, South Africa Page 810. Drummond, R.B. (1975). A list of trees, shrubs and woody climbers indigenous or naturalised in Rhodesia. Kirkia 10(1) Page 263. Exell, A.W. (1978). Combretaceae Flora Zambesiaca 4 Pages 133 - 135. Van Wyk, B. & Van Wyk, P. (1997). Field Guide to Trees of Southern Africa. Struik, South Africa Pages 336 - 337. (Includes a picture). Van Wyk, B. & Van Wyk, P. (2013). Field Guide to Trees of Southern Africa (Second edition) Struik, South Africa Pages 394 - 395. (Includes a picture).

Other sources of information about Combretum psidioides:

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Flora of Burundi: Combretum psidioides
Flora of Caprivi: Combretum psidioides
Flora of Malawi: Combretum psidioides
Flora of Mozambique: Combretum psidioides
Flora of Zambia: Combretum psidioides
Flora of Zimbabwe: Combretum psidioides

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Combretum psidioides
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Combretum psidioides
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Combretum psidioides
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Combretum psidioides
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Combretum psidioides
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Combretum psidioides
JSTOR Plant Science: Combretum psidioides
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Combretum psidioides
Plants of the World Online: Combretum psidioides
Tropicos: Combretum psidioides
Wikipedia: Combretum psidioides