Description

A large tree to over 30 m tall with a straight, clear unbuttressed bole to 17 m long by up to 5 m girth, occurring in the forested zone from Guinea-Bissau to Ivory Coast, and attaining its greatest stature in Sierra Leone.The wood is very heavy, hard, tough and strong. Heart-wood is dark brown to reddish brown, sap-wood lighter. It is an excellent construction-timber though difficult to work when dry. It takes a good polish. It is durable in contact with water and has been used for dock-gates and bridges, and in naval construction for key-parts of ocean-going boats such as keelsons. At one time it was exported from Sierra Leone to Britain as a teak-substitute under the name of ‘African teak’, a name more appropriately applied to Chlorophora excelsa (Moraceae). African oak, or in the French translation chêne d’Afrique, is the preferable name. Nor should these be applied to Lophira alata (Ochnaceae), ambiguities which make for confusion. (4, 9, 10, 15–18). Though the timber appears to be less abundantly available from Sierra Leone than formerly, it remains an item of export from G. Bissau (11), Liberia (9, 18) and Ivory Coast (13). Other African uses are for sawing into planks, beams, joists and boxes (7–10), and when small for house-posts (6).In Ivory Coast the tree is considered a powerful fetish tree with efficaceous medicinal virtues. The bark is added by medicine-men to prescriptions for the increase of potency. The ‘Kru’ add a decoction of bark to baths and draughts for blennorrhoea as a pelvic decongestant and Guere bathe the circumcision wound in a bark-decoction as an antiseptic and haemostatic followed by a dressing of powdered bark to hasten healing, and to treat sores (1–3, 13).The bark-slash emits a slightly watery sap which is bitter (14). The bark boiled up with palm-oil into an ointment is used in Liberia to treat lice infestation (7). The leaves are similarly used on the head and loins for lice and crabs (5). The leaves are also bitter and in Sierra Leone are crushed and inserted into incisions on wine-palms (Raphia sp.) to drive off bees which are after the palm-wine (12), an use which perhaps explains the Mende name kpao lai: bamboo wine leaf.Seeds and bark are pounded together for use in Liberia as a pesticide (8), though the seeds, which are oily, are said to be a relished food of monkeys and other animals (15).