The flowers of Colophospermum mopane, the mopane tree, are produced in short racemes or sprays from the leaf axils. The flowers are small, creamy white to greenish. There are four green sepals at the back of each flower, but no petals are present that might impede the 20 to 25 stamens from presenting their ripe pollen upon the winds for pollination.
The flower has a large stigma, positioned on the side of the ovary. Although this is a strange arrangement, it is clearly very functional, if one considers how many mopane trees there are in habitat in the large distribution area of the species, in spite of the fact that flowering of this plant is often erratic. Sometimes large areas populated by mopane present no flowers for several years on end (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002).