Brachystegia bussei Harms

Tree 6–20(–?30) m. high, usually reported as slender; bark at first smooth, pale grey, flaking thinly, exposing yellow or buff patches, becoming darker and often rough near base (when burnt?); crown rounded or flattish, rather loose; branches slender; foliage pendulous, maturing bright green.. Branchlets usually soon rusty.. Stipules free, linear to ovate-oblong or falcate, often subfoliaeeous, 0.5–2.5 cm. long, usually caducous; auricles 0.. Leaves glabrous or rarely puberulous, with (2–)3–4 widely spaced pairs of leaflets, the distal pairs usually larger; petiole (1.5–)2–3(–4) cm. long, slender; rhachis (2–)4–8(–12) cm. long, slender, channelled; stipellar expansions usually semilunar, sometimes obscure; leaflets narrowly ovate to falcate, (2.5–)4–8(–10) × (1–)1.5–4(–5) cm., obtuse or retuse at apex, often acuminate, ± obliquely subcordate to cuneate at base; midrib subcentral; basal fanwise nerves 2–3(–4).. Panicles terminal or terminal and axillary, up to 5 × 5 cm., ± puberulous.. Flowers small, greenish-white; bracteoles 4–6(–7) × 3–4(–5) mm., finely sericeous.. Tepals usually all sepaloid, imbricate, outer (4–)5(–6), up to 2 × 1.7 mm., very shortly ciliate, inner 0 or 1–4, narrow.. Stamens ± 10; filaments free or irregularly connate at base, 7–10 mm. long.. Ovary 2–2.5 × 1 mm., subdensely crispate-setose; style 6–9 mm. long, stigma prominent.. Pod thinly woody, up to 15 × 3.5 cm., smooth, pale to mid-brown, ± pruinose; sutural wings thin, revolute-each 6–8 mm. wide.. Fig. 35/2, p. 160.

Deciduous woodland, on mountain slopes on reddish soils; also on flat areas with sandy-clay soils; at elevations from 250-1,500 metres. Characteristic of low lying slopes with stony eroded soils.

Can be grown by seedlings.