It is easy to pick the Combretum zeyheri tree in the bushveld, especially during the long fruiting season. Other South African combretums with winged fruits are easily distinguished from it, because their fruits are almost all smaller. In the Zambezi valley C. kirkii, a climber Combretum has fruits of similar size, while Carr (1988) mentions a new species occurring in the northeast of KwaZulu-Natal that has big fruit.
Most South African Combretum species occur in the northern parts of the country, several in the bushveld (Carr, 1988; Coates Palgrave, 2002).