Description

A tree of the primary dense rain-forest, galleried forest or secondary growth, from Senegal to Ivory Coast, in lowlands and to 1850 m altitude.The trunk is slender, straight and long. The tree seems to attain its tallest at 25 m high in Ivory Coast (1), but to about 10 m elsewhere. The stems are strong and used for hut-poles in Liberia (2) and Sierra Leone (5). The wood is very hard and good for pestles for rice-mortars (5). In Liberia it is burned for charcoal (2). The wood is yellow and is sawn up for small timbers (4).Bark-ash mixed with palm-oil is rubbed on to the back in Liberia to relieve back-pains but ‘in rubbing it in, however, the fingers must not be used: only by using the big toe to apply the salve will relief be soon effected’! (3, 4).