Salvadora oleoides

Salvadora oleoides Decaisne in Jaquem.

A shrub or small tree with a short twisted or bent trunk, branches numerous, stiff, divergent, whitish.Leaves 4-10 X 0.3-1cm, whitish green, coriaceous and somewhat fleshy when mature, linear-lanceolate or elliptic to lanceolate, acute or subobutase, often mucronate, glabrous, main nerves indistinct, petioles 4-6 mm long. Flowers greenish – white, sessile in erect axillary panicled spikes, 2.5-4 cm long often clustered. Calyx 1.5-2 mm long, cleft about halfway down; lobes rounded, obtuse. Corolla little longer then the calyx, deeply cleft, lobes obovate - oblong, obtuse. Stamens 4, inserted at the base or in the middle of corolla-tube; filamenis slightly flattened disk of the 4 scale or glands between the bases of the filament. Ovary 1-celled, ovule solitary; style very short or almost 0; stigma broad truncate or subpeltate. Fruit: Drupes 4-5 mm in diameter, sub sessile; globose, yellow when ripe. Supported by the persistent calyx and corolla; endocarp crustaceous, seeds erect, globose.

Flowering: January – March