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View crop Data sheet EcoPortColophospermum mopane
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| BRIEF DESCRIPTION A small to medium-sized deciduous, spineless tree, usually 4-18 m but may reach 30 in height. With one or more straight trunks 50-100 cm in diameter. Often with a thin, V-shaped crown. Where it is heavily browsed it becomes a rounded shrub. Shublike and more branchy in dry areas. USES The wood is used as mine timbers, fenceposts, house poles, bridge timbers, railway material, carved ornaments, parquet, furniture, and firewood and charcoal. Extracts from wood and roots have medicinal properties. It is browsed by livestock and provides fodder. Mentioned as a possible agroforestry species. The mopane worms, hairless caterpillers, can be used as food. KILLING T It withstands only mild frosts, heavy frosts may cause the branches to die back. GROWING PERIOD Perennial. COMMON NAMES Butterfly tree, Balsam tree, Mopane, Mopani, Musaru, Lipani, Turpentine tree, Rhodesian ironwood, Mopanie, Mupani, Sanya. FURTHER INF Scientific synonym: Copaifera mopane. Butterfly tree occur naturally within the latitudinal range of 10°N-25°S. It is a lowland species and can be found between sea level and 1200 m. The optimum altitude is below 900 m. It is very shallow rooting, and can therefore survive on low mounds in wet areas, or under saline conditions as long as salinity in the topsoil is low. It thrives only where there is little competition from deep-rooting trees. The tree coppices vigorously after fire, frost or felling, it fixes nitrogen, is very drought hardy, and casts little shade. | Sources |
| SOURCES (C. mopane (Kirk ex Benth.) Kirk ex J. Leonard) Webb D 1984 pp 128 [RAIN, TEMP, TEXT, PH, DRA, SAL, LIG, USE] National RC 1980 pp 122 INSPIRE species 45 [RAIN, TEMP, TEXT, PH, DRA, SAL, LIG, USE] IBPGR 1984 pp 43 Little E 1983 pp 100-104 [RAIN, DEP, TEXT, DRA, SAL, PH, FER] Hensleight T 1988 pp 375 [TEMP, KTMP, RAIN, DRA, PH, SAL, USE] |