BEEFWOOD

Medium tree or robust shrub, 3–15 m high; dark fissured bark. Used for fodder and honey production.

Leaves - flat, linear, 10–45 cm long, mostly 2–10 mm wide, lower surface longitudinally ridged, leathery.

Flowers – white to yellow-green, short in erect spikes 5-8cm long.

Fruit – thin, hard, about 15mm long with an erect beak.

Flowering – summer.

Indigenous uses - bactericides: wounds, sores and ulcers, styptics; miscellaneous uses for asthma, tuberculosis, rabies, cancer, deafness, diabetes, infectious diseases, warts, etc; the dark reddish resin exuded by the tree melts with body heat and may be used as a substitute for pitch in the preparation of ointments and plasters; edible seeds; the sap is scrapped from the damaged beefwood tree then grated into powder and sprinkled on sores, burns and cuts.