''Pierreodendron kerstingii'' is a species of

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

in the family

Simaroubaceae The Simaroubaceae, also known as the quassia family, are a small, mostly tropical, family in the order Sapindales. In recent decades, it has been subject to much taxonomic debate, with several small families being split off. A molecular phyloge ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

and found in

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

, and

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

. It is sometimes considered

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of ''

Pierreodendron africanum ''Pierreodendron'' is a genus of plants in the family Simaroubaceae. Its native range is western tropical Africa and is found in Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Togo and Zaïre. It was first publishe ...

'', which would then be a widespread species distributed south to Angola and east to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Description and uses

It is a large forest tree growing to tall. The flowers are red and ripe fruits are yellow. The bark is used as insecticide and rat poison, and the extract has anti-tumor properties.

Habitat and conservation

''Pierreodendron kerstingii'' occurs in heavily exploited, semi-deciduous forests. It is an uncommon species threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

References

kerstingii Trees of Benin Flora of Ghana Flora of Ivory Coast Flora of Togo Vulnerable plants Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Adolf Engler {{sapindales-stub