''Lannea welwitschii'' 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 ''

Anacardiaceae The Anacardiaceae, commonly known as the cashew family or sumac family, are a family of flowering plants, including about 83 genera with about 860 known species. Members of the Anacardiaceae bear fruits that are drupes and in some cases produce ...

''. It is native to the tropical rainforests of West and Central Africa. The timber is used to make furniture and utensils and for many other purposes, the fruits can be eaten, and the bark is used to produce a dye, for making rope and in

traditional medicine Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) refers to the knowledge, skills, and practices rooted in the cultural beliefs of various societies, especially Indigenous groups, used for maintaining health and treatin ...

Description

A medium-sized evergreen or deciduous tree, ''L. welwitschii'' can grow to a height of about . The trunk is straight and cylindrical and up to in diameter. It has no buttresses. The bark is grey or greyish-brown and smooth at first, developing rounded shallow pits and flakes later. The inner bark is fibrous, being reddish with white streaks, and exudes a clear sticky fluid when damaged. The branches form a spreading

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

and the twigs bear many

lenticel A lenticel is a porous tissue consisting of cells with large intercellular spaces in the periderm of the secondarily thickened organs and the Bark (botany), bark of woody stems and roots of gymnosperms and dicotyledonous flowering plants. It func ...

s. The leaves are in opposite pairs and are clustered at the ends of the branches. They are pinnate, up to , with usually five to seven,

ovate Ovate may refer to: * Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe * Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd * Vates or ovate, a term for ancient Celtic bards ...

leaflets. The inflorescences are pyramidal

panicle In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a p ...

s clad in yellowish hairs, up to long, growing in the leaf axils. The yellowish-green flowers are unisexual and regular with parts in fours. They are followed by single-seeded

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed ...

s, long, which are black when ripe.

Distribution and habitat

The species is native to Western and Central Africa, its range extending from

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. It occurs in lowland rain forests below about , with a preference for swampy or riverine locations. It is considered a

pioneer species Pioneer species are resilient species that are the first to colonize barren environments, or to repopulate disrupted biodiverse steady-state ecosystems as part of ecological succession. Various kinds of events can create good conditions for pi ...

and is primarily found in secondary forest.

Uses

''Lannea welwitschii'' is fast-growing and can be

coppiced Coppicing is the traditional method in woodland management of cutting down a tree to a stump, which in many species encourages new shoots to grow from the stump or roots, thus ultimately regrowing the tree. A forest or grove that has been su ...

pollarded Pollarding is a pruning system involving the removal of the upper branches of a tree, which promotes the growth of a dense head of foliage and branches. In ancient Rome, Propertius mentioned pollarding during the 1st century BCE. The practice h ...

, and can be made into a

living fence A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced (3 feet or closer) shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate ...

. An orange or reddish-brown

dye Juan de Guillebon, better known by his stage name DyE, is a French musician. He is known for the music video of the single "Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical ele ...

can be extracted from the bark, and the fibres can be made into ropes and sandals. The heartwood of the timber is cream-coloured and light, but not durable. It is used for making household utensils, boxes, crates, veneers and plywood. It is also used in flooring, furniture, vehicle bodies, cabinet work, light joinery, matches and hardboard. The wood can be used for kindling, and the bole of the tree can be hollowed out to make a

canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...

. The fruit can be eaten raw, being resinous with an acidic flavour. A

decoction Decoction is a method of extraction by boiling herbal or plant material (which may include stems, roots, bark and rhizomes) to dissolve the chemicals of the material. It is the most common preparation method in various herbal medicine systems. D ...

of the bark is used in

for women's ailments, diarrhoea, dysentery, urethral discharge and haemorrhoids. The bark is applied as a pulp for the treatment of ulcers and skin ailments, and as a powder for treating wounds and snakebites. A decoction of the roots is used as an expectorant or emetic.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15267467 welwitschii Trees of Africa Flora of West Tropical Africa Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa Flora of Northeast Tropical Africa Flora of East Tropical Africa Taxa named by William Philip Hiern