| DESCRIPTION: It is a deciduous tree reaching 8-18 m in height, with a heavy rounded crown and a clear bole up to 5 m. Bark rough, pale brown or greyish-white, rather smooth with narrow vertical fissures. Leaves opposite, glabrous, 14-34 cm long, usually with 5 leaflets on stalks 6-14 cm long. Fruit oblong, about 3 cm long. Green when young, turning purplish-black on ripening and with a starchy black pulp. USE: The fruit is sweet and tastes like prunes. The leaves, pods and seeds are a good fodder. The wood is whitish to light brown, teak-like, termite-resistant, quite hard and suitable for light building material, furniture, carvings and boats and also as firewood and charcoal. The bark yields a dye that can be used for cloth. The fruit is used to improve fertility and to treat anaemia, jaundice, leprosy and dysentery. The root is used for gonorrhoea, and women drink a decoction of it for backaches. The young tender leaves are pounded and the juice squeezed into the eyes to treat eye troubles. The tree is grown for shade and as a bounder tree. It has nitrogen-fixing roots and fallen leaves make a good mulch. GROWING PERIOD: Perennial. COMMON NAMES: Black plum. FURTHER INF: It is the most abundant and widespread of the genus occurring in savannah regions. A forest tree of coastal woodland, riverine and lowland forests and deciduous woodland, extending as high as upland grassland. Requires a high water table. It occurs on a variety of soils of varying origins, usually alluvial soils. |
