Compilation
Albizia rhodesica

VARIATION. The leaflets may be glabrous or nearly so, with calyx and corolla glabrous except on the lobes (e.g. Mpwapwa, Hornby 536, EA!, K!), or the leaflets may be pubescent on both sides, with the corolla-tube rather densely pubescent, and with some pubescence on the calyx-tube (e.g. Tabora District, Sikonge, Lindeman 787, EA!, K!). The type of A. tanganyicensis is about midway between these extremes. Since flowers and foliage are rarely collected together, these correlations of indumentum are based on limited evidence and require further checking. A specimen from Masasi, Gillman 1189 (EA!) has smaller leaflets than usual, up to about 2 × 1 cm.; a similar form occurs at the Victoria Falls in Rhodesia. Hornby 536 (see above) is unusual in showing numerous sessile glands on the calyx and corolla. At present it seems better to treat all these variations as falling within the ordinary range of variability of the species, and not to name them. The remarkable papery peeling bark of A. tanganyicensis seems most distinctive, and the seeds are usually larger than in other any East African Albizia. In the majority of gatherings examined, the flowers in the capitula (other than the central modified ones) have a minute ovary and style only about 1 mm. long in all, and apparently non-functional, the capitula being thus apparently ♂. Eggeling 6314 shows normal hermaphrodite flowers with well-developed ovaries and elongate styles. Observers in the field are asked to find out whether it is that certain trees are ♂ and others hermaphrodite, or whether the ♂ capitula are produced by hermaphrodite trees at a certain season, or whether the sex of the capitula varies with their position on the tree.