Cultivation Details
A plant of low to moderate elevations in the drier tropics and subtropics. Once plants are two or more years old, they can tolerate at least some frost[1]. Succeeds in full sun and also in partial shade. Tolerant of diverse soils such as heavy black loam, sandy riverine alluvium and granite sand[1]. Established plants are surprisingly drought tolerant[1]. This species sets lots of seed and seedlings are often to be found under the trees within its native range[1] A fast-growing tree under good conditions, where it can be 4 - 6 metres tall within 3 years from seed[1].
Propagation
Seed - It grows easily from fresh, unparasitized seed which should be soaked for some hours before sowing. The seedlings appear 7 - 13 days after sowing. The seedlings are frost resistant after two years[1]. The tree often self-sows freely in gardens The seed of most, if not all, species can be stored inside the fruit for several years without losing viability[3]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Combretum+erythrophyllum>
Pollinators
Data unavailable
References
- [1]PlantZAfrica.com — http://www.plantzafrica.com ↩︎An excellent site giving detailed descriptions and uses of many S. African plants.
- [2]BoDD (Botanical Dermatology Database) — http://bodd.cf.ac.uk/ ↩︎Brief notes on a very wide range of plants that have reports of causing harm to the skin.
- [3]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
- [4]Flora Zambesiaca — http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html ↩︎An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants.
- [5]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.