Combretum alfredi
Hance
Sze Kwan Che T'ang
President and Fellows of Harvard College
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What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
The fruit is edible.
Where to Find It
It is a tropical plant. It grows from sea level to 800 m altitude in southern China.
Asia, China,
How to Identify
A creeper. It climbs 6 m tall. The bark is grey. There are scales on young parts of the plant. The small branches and leaf stalks have a yellow covering. The leaves are almost opposite. The leaf stalks are 7-15 mm long. The leaf blade is broadly oval and 10-20 cm long by 4-11 cm wide. The flowering spikes are at the ends of branches and in the axils of leaves. These can be 5-15 cm long. The flowers have a sweet smell. The petals are yellow or white. The fruit are red or purple when ripe. They are about 2.5 cm across and have wings. They are yellow or orange and scaly.
Notes
There are about 255 Combretum species.
References (2)
- Altschul, S.V.R., 1973, Drugs and Foods from Little-known Plants. Notes in Harvard University Herbaria. Harvard Univ. Press. Massachusetts. no. 3038
- Flora of China. Vol. 13, p 319 and Flora of China. www.eFloras.org
