The useful trees of northern NigeriaLely, Hugh Vandervaes
Science
The useful trees of northern Nigeria
Lely, Hugh Vandervaes
Plants, Useful -- Nigeria, Northern; Trees -- Nigeria, Northern
=The Fruits= are pods from 6-12 inches long, straight, curved or
bent, and about ¾ inch thick. They are cylindrical and have a smooth,
shining, hard shell, dark brown in colour. The interior is divided
transversely into a number of cells in which the brown, flattened seeds
lie with their width in the direction of the pods’ length. The space
on each side of the seeds is full of sticky matter and the pod has an
objectionable odour, and persists for a long time on the tree, not
splitting.
=Uses.=—A concoction from the pods is used as a fish poison.
[Illustration]
=TAMARINDUS INDICA= Linn.—_Tsamiya_. “_Tamarind Tree_.” LEGUMINOSAE.
One of the commonest species of the north, in park formations, farm
lands and open country round towns. It thrives on poor soils, big
specimens growing on loose sand and shallow laterite. It is readily
identified from a distance by its very dense, dark, compact crown,
which may be oval or cylindrical with a pointed top, and uniformly
dense down to within a few feet of the ground. It has as a rule a
short, stout bole, 6-8 feet in girth, often divided a few feet from the
level of the ground into two or three large limbs, with short, gnarled
and crooked branches and a dense thicket of twigs. This compact form is
more common farther north, southern specimens showing a higher, wider,
and more umbrella-shaped crown. It averages 40-50 feet high. It is to
be seen at times growing in a curious manner in small clumps of four
or five stems on a raised earthy mound, possibly an old ant hill or an
accumulation of earth held up by the close-growing stems. There is a
very considerable leaf-fall and little grows beneath its shade. A quite
common association is that of this species with _Adansonia digitata_,
the Tamarind in this case embracing the other with long, sinuous limbs
to a considerable height, and having no main stem.
=The Bark= is light grey with even-sized, thick scales about 1 inch
square. These scales extend to the ends of the branches, getting
smaller and more regular, still thick and hard, with a considerable
resemblance to the bark of the Shea Butter Tree. The youngest trees
show this bark. The slash is pale red with a yellow outer layer.
=The Wood.= The heartwood is dark brown, almost purple-brown, the
sapwood pale yellow. In transverse section the pores are large, in
groups and festoons, the contents nearly filling them, and they are
numerous and the soft tissue occupies a large percentage of the wood.
The rays are very fine and close, not visible to the naked eye. The
wood is tough, very hard, heavy, cross-grained, blunts axes, saws with
difficulty and picks up under the plane, which will give a hard finish,
taking a polish. It is liable to crack in seasoning. The weight is 58
lbs. a cubic foot.
=The Leaves= are pinnate, from 4-6 inches long with 10-12 pairs of dull
dark green leaflets, strap-like and notched at the tip. They have a
grey bloom and are waxy to the touch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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