A tree of the evergreen forest, to 30 m high, straight slender bole, buttressed or sometimes stilted, occurring from Sierra Leone to the W Cameroons, and in E Cameroun, Gabon, Zaïre and Angola.The wood is whitish, darkening to light brown, with a pungent odour when fresh (5), light and soft but tough and strong, of rather coarse texture and straight grain, easily worked and finishing smoothly, but not very durable (6, 7). The wood has no commercial use, but finds use locally. The slender stems are used for house-poles and can readily be sawn into planks (4, 6). In Zaïre the wood is used for carpentry and making chairs (2), and in Gabon for construction work (12).The bark-slash is sweetly aromatic (9, 10, 11). Powdered bark is taken in the Ivory Coast as a sinus decongestant in the case of colds or for headache (1), and a bark-macerate is used in Gabon for headache (12).Pieces of bark are used to make hut-walls (3, 6, 7, 8), and a tough cordage is made from the stringy inner layers (6, 7, 11, 12).The fruits, which are about 5 cm long, fairly thick, black and 2–4-seeded, are a form of ‘bush pepper’ (7).