Description

A large tree reaching 40 m height, trunk to over 1.20 m diameter, buttressed, bole straight, cylindrical to 25 m long, with open spreading evergreen crown, one of the largest trees of the humid rain-forest; from Senegal to W Cameroons, and extending to Uganda and Tanganyika. Several species and a number of varieties have been recognised in what is a variable aggregate of which K. gabonensis var. oblongifolia Engl. is presently held to be the regional representative. A revision of the genus is necessary.The sap-wood is thin, light brown, and though hard is liable to borer attack (14, 15). The heart-wood is attractively coloured reddish to golden brown with wide dark veining, and often with zigzag markings. It is extremely hard and one of the heaviest of West African timbers. It is durable in contact with the ground and poles are often used in hut-construction. The wood, however, is too hard for cutting with domestic implements, so that its local usages are very limited. Where forest is being cleared for agriculture the tree is usually left standing and becomes a conspicuous feature of the landscape. Its presence in secondary vegetation is a fair indication of previous occupation. With specialist equipment the timber can be worked and use as railway-sleepers and for heavy construction projects is suggested. It can be made into attractive furniture. In primitive dwellings in Sierra Leone, the buttresses are sometimes used to make doors (14).The wood is deemed a good firewood. The branches and the stems of young trees are flexible and are used to make spring traps (3, 8–11, 14–16).The bark-slash exudes a watery clear or honey-coloured sap with a musky smell (12, 14, 16). The cut surface, at first white, becomes purplish on exposure (15). The bark displays analgesic properties. It is ground to a fine powder in Sierra Leone, then mixed with clay and water for rubbing onto rheumaticy joints (14). In Gabon the bark is used for rheumatic pains said to precede yaws (18), and in Ubangi a patient suffering from lumbago has the affected area exposed to bark smoke (Vergiat fide 13, 19). In Congo (Brazzaville) the pulped-up bark is prepared as an ointment with palm-oil for application to areas of rheumatism, and in that country too a bark-decoction is put in baths and lotions for buccal infections, small-pox and chickenpox, and a preparation is taken by mouth for venereal disease, sterility and impotence (4).The roots have been examined for activity against avian malaria, with a negative result (7).Tannin is reported present in both the bark and the root (5).At the end of the rainy season (about October) the tree puts on a spectacular flush of brilliant red new leaf. Flowering takes place at the same time and the crown is covered with a purplish hue (16). The young leaves are characterised by the presence of long linear stipules which are soon shed, though on some trees they are lacking, a character recognised by the Yoruba who have a separate name for the stipule-less form (see vernacular name list above). The young stipuled leaves are eaten with palm kernels by the Akye of Ivory Coast as an aphrodisiac (2). In Gabon they are also held to be aphrodisiac (17, 18). A trace of alkaloid is reported present in the leaves (1). In Congo they are eaten with vegetables, oil, salt, fish or meat as a stomachic, and are used as an analgesic for topical or internal application in various cases of pain (4).The fruit, 5–8 cm long, is usually 5–angled, each angle with a hard woody nut, and the whole in a fibrous covering containing some gummy substance (15). Elephants in Liberia are said to eat the fruit (12) presumably for the nutritious kernels of the seeds. The kernels are much relished for human use. They are eaten fresh or roasted, or crushed to a paste, and enter into cooking in numerous ways. The kernel prepared as a vegetable butter is a substitute for shea (karite) butter (Vitellaria paradoxa Gaertn.f, Sapotaceae). The seed contains about 65 % oil consisting, on a dry weight basis, of myristic acid 42%, oleic acid 22%, lauric acid 16%, palmitic acid 11%, and others (6).The kernel of ‘var. microphylla’ is used in Gabon in washes and frictions on furuncles (18).