Afzelia africana
Fruit and seeds of Afzelia africana
Afzelia africana is a species in the legume family ( Fabaceae ). The area of this species extends into the Sudanese savannas and dry forests, from Senegal about Cameroon as far as Uganda and Tanzania. She is out on the IUCN Red List in the category VU ( vulnerable ).
Description
Afzelia africana is a large tree, the plant height and usually up to 15, rarely reaches up to 30 meters. His gray bark is fissured. The petiole is 0.4 to 1.0 cm long. The up to 30 cm long, smooth leaves are alternate and arranged in pairs pinnate, with three to 17 pairs of leaflets continuous. The ganzrandigen leaflets are 5-15 cm long and 3-9 cm wide.
The terminal Rispige inflorescence has a length of about 20 cm. The zygomorphic, hermaphrodite flowers remember the scent of jasmine. The two outer sepals are 6-9 mm long and 5-7 mm wide, the two inner ones are 7-11 mm long and 6-10 mm wide. The large, nailed petal is 1.1 to 2 cm long, white or greenish- white, with a pink stripe. There are seven fertile stamens with hairy filaments present. The stylus is hairy at the bottom.
The maturity black, flattened, straight legumes are 12 to 17 cm long, 5-8 cm wide and 3.5 cm thick. They contain eight to ten black toxic seeds having a length of 1.6 to 3 cm, a diameter from 1.1 to 2.1 cm, and an orange, edible aril.
Use
The termite- resistant wood is sold under the name lingue, Doussie, Apa, Chanfuta or Afzelia as parquet wood for furniture, drums ( djembe ) and household items used. The bark is used as fish poison use the leaves as fodder and the flowers as a sauce spice. There are also numerous medical and magical- religious uses.
Swell
- Aluka.
- Specifications of the FAO. (English )
- B. A. Bationo, S. J. Ouedraogo, I.J. Boussim: Afzelia africana Sm ( Caesalpiniaceae ): étude de la predation of graines dans une savane boisée du Burkina Faso, in Bois et Forestry of tropiques, 264, 2000, pp. 55-56. . Online. (PDF, 61 kB)