| DESCRIPTION: It is shrub or small tree usually 1-3 m high but may reach up to 8 m. It is deciduous in drier areas and evergreen in wetter regions. USE: The fruits are eaten. The green and dried fruit and the leaves and shoots are valuable forage. The wood is used as firewood and charcoal. The timber for carpentry, joinery and wood-carving. Fibre and tannin is extracted from the bark. Roots, leaves, bark, roots, stem and fruits have medicinal properties. The tree can be planted on dunes and help stabilize and control them. It is grown as an ornamental and is suitable for roadsides, and it may easily be grown indoors provided the conditions are warm and brightly lit. It provides a good, impenetrable, browse-resistant live fence, useful for protecting gardens, fields and compounds. GROWING PERIOD: Perennial. COMMON NAMES: kharoub, kulkul (Arabic), nammare (Fula), jiga, jirga, matsagi (Hausa), randa (Wolof). FURTHER INF: It is often found in dry savannah, especially near stream banks. It is found in the entire Sahel and adjacent Sudan zone, from Senegal and Mauritania across North Ghana and Niger to central Sudan and Ethiopia. |
