| DESCRIPTION: It is an evergreen tree reaching up to 30 m in height with a densely leafy crown, but often shrubby. Bole without buttresses, Bark smooth, grey. Leaves composite, 5-13 cm long, with an odd terminal leaflet and usually 2 pairs of opposite or alternate leaflets, the lower pair being somewhat smaller; leaflets mostly 3.5-10 x 2.5-5 cm, elliptic to broadly elliptic, sometimes slightly obovate. Fruits usually abundant, more or less circular and flattened, but sometimes almost globose, up to 2.5 cm in diameter, densely velvety and black. USE: The fruit is red, with a sweet-sour, astringent flavour similar to baobab, but sweeter, it is peeled and eaten raw. The thirst-quenching, refreshing fruit pulp can also be soaked in water and drunk as a beverage. Leaves are edible but bitter. The wood is hard, durable, heavy, light brown, with a fine texture. It is used for vehicles, houses and flooring and also as firewood and charcoal. Bark and leaves are used against several diseases. The tree is used as natural fallow species for fertility restoration. GROWING PERIOD: Perennial. COMMON NAMES: Black velevet. FURTHER INF: It grows in dense savannah forests, shadowy canyons and gallery forests. It is found from Senegal to Sudan along the southern border of the Sahel. In Ghana, it is found along transition zones bordering high forest, in riverian forest of the savannah woodland, in coastal scrub, and in riparian vegetation. Naturally found on moist, sometimes brackish soils. |