English: African pear; Bush pear; African plum; Bush butter tree; Butterfruit.
Acmes: Safou; Atanga; Ube; Nsafu.
Name: comes from the Greek word dakruon for tear.
Region: Africa, Angola, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda; cultivated in Malaysia.
Habitat: shady, humid tropical forest; adapts well to variations in soil type, humidity, temperature and day length.
Content: terpenes, flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, saponins.
Content fruit: fatty acids, palmitic, oleic, stearic, linolenic and linoleic acids; triglycerides, palmitolino-olein, dipalmito-olein; oil, ± 65% fatty acids; vitamins.
Content seed: carbohydrates, proteins, crude fibres, potassium, calcium, magnesium phosphorus; essential amino acids, lysine, phenylalanine, leucine, isoleucine; fatty acids, palmitic acids, oleic acids, linoleic acids; gallic acid.
Use: fruit, raw, cooked or roasted, texture similar to butter; kernel as fodder for sheep or goats; flowers in apiculture; wood for tool handles, mortars, carpentry; resin for lighting, glue; ornamental; improve soil quality, rural development, sustainable landcare.
BotanyTree; evergreen; 18 to 40 meters; deep, dense crown.
Stem: short trunk; bark is pale gray, rough, with droplets of resin; wood elastic, greyish-white to pinkish.
Leaves: upper surface is glossy; compound with 5 to 8 pairs of leaflets.
Flowers: yellow; ± 5 mm across; flowering from the begin of the rainy season.
Inflorescence: large.
Fruit: ellipsoidal drupe; 4 to 12 cm; skin dark blue or violet; flesh is pale to light green.