English: Aidan Tree.
Region: tropical Africa, Senegal to Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, south to Angola, Tanzania.
Habitat: secondary forest, rainforest; high forest zone, riverine forest, savannah-woodland and in the forest; African plains;
moist tropical lowlands; elevations up to 600 metres; sunny position; light to medium, well-drained soil; prefers a pH in the range 4.5 - 6.5
Use: fruit, raw or cooked, for food, in flavouring both sweet and savoury foods; medicinal; seedpod for fish poison; wood for small furniture, door and window frames, building poles, pestles, tool handles, carvings; wood for fuel; flowers as perfumes and in pomades of palm oil.
BotanyDeciduous tree; 20 - 25 metres tall; bole, fairly small, thin and rounded, becoming flat when old, 50 - 90 cm in diameter, slender
Stem: small, low, sharp buttresses in older trees; heartwood is reddish to brown, fairly hard and heavy; sapwood is white, moderate durability.
Fruit: seed pods, dark, red-brown; shiny, glabrous, dark purple-brown, usually slightly curved, 15 - 25 cm long by about 5 cm across; 4 longitudinal ridges, 2 woody, 2 filled with a soft, sugary, edible pulp with a caramel-like odour.