Region: Africa, Senegal, Mali to Ethiopia, south through eastern DR Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique,
Madagascar.
Habitat: tropical, dry areas; savannah woodland, woodland and brush; warm moist areas; along river banks; pastureland; low to medium elevations, 550 to 2700 metres; intolerant of frost; prefers a sunny position, light, deep, and well-drained soils and moist conditions.
Use: multipurpose tree; providing food; medicines; materials, timber; edible berries; shade tree in coffee plantations; ornamental; fruit, raw or cooked, in porridge, combined with honey; nuts, boiled and bottled in gourds for two days, to produce a drink called ambila; colonizer in forest regrowth, pioneer; shade tree for crops, coffee trees; leaves for good mulch on cropland, pastureland, rangeland to improve microclimatic conditions; high quality honey; twigs as fire-sticks; wood for carpentry, cabinet making, light construction, ship building, vehicle bodies, toys, novelties, vats, draining boards, food containers, matches, veneer, plywood, hardboard, particle board, paper making, canoes, drums, bee-hives, grain mortars, water containers, utensils, tool handles, fuel.
BotanyShrub or tree; evergreen; heavily branched, spreading, umbrella-shaped or rounded
crown; 4 to 15 to 30 metres tall; slow to moderately fast growing.
Stem: 60cm in diameter; short; of poor form, especially in drier areas; heartwood is pinkish brown to reddish brown, fairly distinctly demarcated from the greyish sapwood, grain is usually interlocked, texture medium to coarse but even; wood is lustrous, moderately light in weight, hard or moderately soft, moderately durable, moderately susceptible to termite and pinhole borer attacks; wood works well with both machine and hand tools,planes and moulds to a nice surface, polishes well when a filler is used, holds nails and screws well, has good gluing properties, peeling and slicing characteristics are satisfactory.
Flowers: sweetly scented yield plenty of nectar.
Pollination: by honey bees.
Fruit: yellow, ovoid; 12 mm long, 9 mm wide
Seed: taste like walnuts.