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 Leaves= are 12-15 inches long, pinnate, with 3-5 pairs of opposite
leaflets and a terminal leaflet. The leaflets are obovate with broad
tip and small point, and are increasingly longer and larger from below
upwards, the lowest pair about 2½ inches long and 1½ inches broad,
the upper pair 4-5 inches long and 2-2½ inches broad, the terminal as
broad, but not so long. The nerves are prominent beneath but grooved
above. The colour is light green and shining, smooth beneath. The
margins may be serrate, the teeth quite sharp, or may be quite entire.
=The Flowers= are in panicles up to 4 feet in length hanging from
the branches in February to April. The short flower stalks are
curved, the calyx is fleshy, 4-lobed and pale green, and the corolla
has a trumpet-shaped tube some 3 inches long, ending in a large,
reddish-purple, wrinkled and lobed mouth on the lower side of which
lie the 4 stamens and pistil with flattened stigma. The outside of the
curved tubular portion is white with reddish lines, and the shape and
length of this tube decides the species. There is an unpleasant odour
to the flower. The corolla falls entire with the stamens attached.
=The Fruit= is like an elongated marrow, 12-20 inches long and 3-4
inches broad, greyish in colour with a slightly rough skin. The apex
is pointed. Scattered about in the fibrous pulp are a number of small
seeds which are let loose by the rotting of the fruit, which takes a
long time to mature.
[Illustration]
=LONCHOCARPUS GRIFFONIANUS= Dunn.—_Tuburku_. LEGUMINOSAE.
This is a large deciduous tree which extends up to 11° by way of the
streams and “kurmis” and which, below that latitude will grow away,
though not far, from their influence. It attains a height of 60 feet
with a girth of 8 feet or more and has an enormous spreading crown with
drooping twigs and delicate pinnate foliage which gives heavy shade.
Bole lengths of 30 feet are seen in close forest and in the open there
may be a number of stems from the ground level or near it. The pods,
like strips of tanned leather, are the most distinctive feature, as
they persist for some time.
=The Bark= is smooth, with small, very thin, close-fitting scales which
remain attached by their centres before falling. The colour is grey or
light brown. The slash is pale yellow, soft and thick.
=The Wood= is whitish-grey. In transverse section the rings are
indistinct lines, the pores are very irregular festoons, dense on some
zones and single and scattered in the rings. The rays are very fine and
close and much waved, and are visible as a fine stippling in vertical
sections. In vertical section the pores are open and their brown colour
adds a tint to the wood. It is soft, very easy to work with all tools,
the planed surface having a slight sheen. Weight 40 lbs. a cubic foot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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