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
This strikingly handsome tree, with a strong resemblance to the
Mountain Ash, is found on poor soils as far as 12½° N., but in the
belts where the soil is better than that of the surrounding country.
Elsewhere further south it occurs throughout the higher savannah
forests, often near streams, where it will grow 60 feet high, but with
a small girth in proportion, not exceeding 5 feet. It averages 30 feet
high, with a long clean bole and high, wide, flat crown of great beauty
from the filtering of light through its bipinnate leaves whose small
round leaflets are set apart, the leaves lying in the horizontal plane.
A 30-feet bole on the larger trees is not uncommon. It gives little
shade. It seems to be very local and where found, occurs over a small
area of country in fair numbers.
=The Bark= is grey or brown, rough, with uneven sized scales, rounded
or polygonal. These leave red scars on falling.
=The Wood= is a rich red-brown, more red than brown. The sapwood is
grey. In transverse section the rings show as darker bands of varied
width and the colour is darker in this section. The pores are numerous,
in festoons of various lengths, or single, and a few nests, the whole
densely and evenly distributed and the soft tissue plainly visible
to the unaided eye as waves and specks in the dark hard tissue. The
rays are straight, unevenly spaced, some being only the width of a ray
apart, others far apart, some visible to the naked eye. The vertical
section shows bands of colour and long dark pores. The wood is very
hard, difficult to saw and picks up in bands under the plane, but the
finished surface is smooth and will take a high polish. The weight is
60 lbs. a cubic foot.
=The Leaves= are bipinnate, 10 inches long, with 2-5 pairs of opposite
or sub-opposite pinnae bearing 8-16 alternate leaflets, broad oval,
flat tipped, pale blue-green, on light brown stalks, each ¾ inch long
and ½ inch broad. They spring from the ends of erect twigs and lie in
the horizontal plane. The leaflets are set apart and do not touch or
overlap.
=The Flowers=, which appear in March, are in spikes, 2-3 inches long,
crowded with white, scented flowers. Each flower has five small white
petals with acute tips, ten white stamens with yellow anthers and a
white pistil. They are not very conspicuous as they are partly hidden
amongst the foliage.
=The Fruits= are large four-angled pods, the suture angle rounded.
They are 4 inches long and 1½ inches broad, brown, pendulous on a 3
inch long stalk. They contain 6-10 seeds, roughly four-angled, pointed
at one end. These lie across the length of the pod and ripen about
December. They are ¾ inch long.
[Illustration]
=ANDIRA INERMIS= H. B. K.—_Gwaska, Madobia_. LEGUMINOSAE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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