Combretum zeyheri flowers at Silkaatsnek, Gauteng

The flowers of the raasblaar start off greenish yellow, pale yellow or creamy. There are at least about 60 of these tiny flowers per spike. The sepals are triangular and tipped with hairs. The filaments are greenish yellow and exserted above the similarly greenish yellow petals. The anthers are light brown to nearly orange.

Combretum zeyheri flowers appear in spring before the leaves or concurrently. They grow in axillary spikes. Blooming may in a good year appear in the showy profusion seen in this picture. The flowers are fragrant and well favoured by many insect species (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Carr, 1988; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997).