Turraeanthus africana
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| ( Welw. Ex C.DC. ) Pellegr. |
Turraeanthus africana is a large tree in the small genus Turraeanthus in the mahogany family from West to Central Africa .
description
Turraeanthus africana grows as an evergreen tree up to 35–45 meters high. The trunk diameter reaches 100–120 centimeters and the trunk is fluted at the bottom with root approaches or shorter buttress roots are formed. The grayish-brown bark is relatively smooth to scaly or slightly cracked.
The paired or unpaired pinnate and stalked leaves are alternate at the ends of the branches. The long leaves have 10–36 elongated to elliptical or ovate to lanceolate or less often obovate, entire and leathery, thick leaflets . The short-stalked leaflets are pointed to pointed, pointed and slightly hairy and slightly scaly underneath. The in the lower part often flattened and slightly runny, to short winged, bald petiole is 8-17 centimeters long and the bald rachis is up to 60 centimeters long. The leaflet stalk is 5–10 millimeters long and the leaflets are 6–29 centimeters long and 2–8 centimeters wide. The stipules are missing.
Turraeanthus africana is dioecious diocesan . Large, dense, paniculate and brown haired axillary inflorescences are formed, often on older branches. The short-stalked flowers are functionally unisexual and five-fold with a double flower envelope . The flower stalk sits on a "joint". The dense, brown-haired, small and overgrown calyx is cup-shaped and blunt. The 4–6 fused petals with a long, tubular corolla tube and fleshy, free and spreading, pointed and lobed lobes are finely rusty hairy on the outside and white-yellowish inside. The corolla tube is fused with the lower part of the stamen . The approximately 8–12 anthers are attached inside, in the upper, short free part of the stamen tube, which is notched above. The fine-haired, multilocular ovary is upper constant with a long, tapered and thick, fine-haired stylus having a disc-shaped scar . The male flowers have a pistillode and the female have staminodes.
Round to pear-shaped, two- to five-lobed, about 2–3.5 centimeters in size, orange-brown capsule fruits are formed. They contain 2-5, about 1.5-2.5 centimeters large seeds with a whitish aril .
Taxonomy
The basionym Guarea africana was first named in 1878 by Friedrich Welwitsch in a manuscript , the valid first description and publication was promptly made by Casimir Pyramus de Candolle in Monographiae Phanerogamarum 1: 576. The new combination to Turraeanthus africana was made in 1911 by François Pellegrin in Notulae Systematicae. Herbier du Museum de Paris 2: 16, 68. Other synonyms are Turraeanthus malchairii De Wild. , Turraeanthus vignei Hutch. & Dalziel , Turraeanthus zenkeri Harms and Bingeria africana (Welw. Ex C.DC.) A.Chev.
The species is often listed under Turraeanthus africanus , but this is incorrect.
use
The light, medium-hard, soft but not very durable satin wood is in great demand, it is known as avodiré. It is decorative and some parts are very easy to work with, but difficult to impregnate.
literature
- Martin Chudnoff: Tropical Timbers of the World. Agriculture Handbook 607, USDA Forest Service, 1984, p. 286, limited preview in Google Book Search.
- J. Gérard, D. Guibal, S. Paradis, J.-C. Cerre: Tropical Timber Atlas. Éditions Quæ, 2017, ISBN 978-2-7592-2798-3 , pp. 135 ff, limited preview in the Google book search.
Web links
- Turraeanthus africanus at PROTA.
- Turraeanthus africanus at Société Française d'Ethnopharmacologie, accessed on September 25, 2019 (with pictures).