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 Flowers= are in small clusters in the leaf axils, on a common
stalk which divides into a number of more slender stalks each bearing
one flower. Each is ¼ inch in diameter, with a flat, 5-pointed calyx, 5
minute petals and 5 stamens, and a bifid stigma round which is a raised
disc which turns brown. The colour of the flower parts is green, and
the flowering season is from October to January.
=The Fruits= are small, light brown drupes about ¾ inch in diameter
with a sweet, edible flesh, juicy, then turning dry and mealy, and a
hard stone of large size for the fruit. There is often a very heavy
crop and they resemble cherries, ripening from November onwards.
=Uses.=—On account of its strength and supposed immunity from white
ants the wood is used for the rafters of flat-roofed mud houses.
The fruits are eaten fresh. The leaves, besides providing fodder for
goats and cattle, are crushed and applied to cure a skin disease.
[Illustration]
APPENDIX I.
NOTE ON THE TABLE OF FLOWERING SEASONS.
The following list of Flowering Seasons has been compiled from 3 years’
observations between 9° and 14° North Latitudes. No account has been
taken of out-of-season flowering, which is of casual occurrence and due
to various causes. The lengths of the flowering seasons are due chiefly
to the wide distribution of the trees and do not necessarily represent
the lengths of time individuals will bear flowers. Few species, in
fact, bear flowers for longer than one month; many for only a few days,
but a journey from north to south will show the effects of varying
humidity on the flowering season. Such an influence may be counteracted
by the date on which a fire swept through the country, fires exerting a
quickening influence on the flowering to a marked degree.
The arrangement of the monthly columns so as to place the New Year
in the middle of the page is made for the purpose of grouping the
flowering period of those species which start flowering before January,
whose periods would otherwise be broken up. Comparatively so few trees
flower after June that the breaking of their periods is of little
account.
This list will illustrate, also, the effect of fires at various times
of the dry season on the different species, which may be more exactly
determined by making an allowance for the situation of a forest in
terms of degrees latitude. In this connection attention may be drawn
to the large number of species whose fruits or seeds persist on the
branches until the rainy season of the following year, and which will
be destroyed by such fires. Only those species whose fruit forms and
falls in the rains of the year in which it flowered will stand a fair
chance of germinating.
Any observed extension, before or after the periods given here can be
entered by extending the lines to correspond and suit the particular
case.
TABLE OF FLOWERING SEASONS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account