Flora and fauna: Combretum purpureiflorum

 

The striking red flower. The seed pods are also pictured here, very typical shape of the combretum family

A large shrub, you can see how they stick out in the dry landscape

One of the most distinct early dry season flowers is that of the combretum purpureiflorum, a distinctive climbing shrub that comes alive with vibrant red flowers in August. The birds in the area feed frantically off the pollen and this time of year you can see the birds with distinctive red color on their beaks. This plant is a very common on in the acacia-commiphora ecosystem. There is a very similar plant, Combretum longispicatum, that looks nearly the same except it has a much larger flower and due to it's horizontal nature, it's known as the "large toothbrush tree". This smaller plant is known as a "toothbrush tree" by westerners but this is not to be confused with the other "toothbrush tree", which is named not for it's visual similarity to a toothbrush but rather for its actual use as a toothbrush.

I'll try to get a photo of the birds and update this post because they frequently come to our birdbath to clean up and it's evident that the plant is one of the only few that producing anything edible. 

Update: Here is a photo of a weaver with residue. They naturally have NO red in their plumage!