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Afzelia africana
Also called Afzelia, Papao
Afzelia africana is a large forest tree from West and East Africa, grown mainly for its valuable timber rather than as an ornamental. It is not a practical plant for home gardens and is seldom grown outside its native range.
Afzelia africana, the African mahogany, afzelia, lenke, lengue, apa, or doussi, is a Myrmecophyte tree species in the family Fabaceae.
It occurs in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, DRCongo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, and Uganda. It is typically found in dense, evergreen forests, but may also be found in the savanna and the coastal forests of East Africa.
Afzelia africana was used in the Middle Ages for ship building. It is one of the traditional djembe woods. The building of a reconstructed 9th-century Arab merchantman, the Jewel of Muscat, required thirty-eight tons of Afzelia africana wood, which was supplied from Ghana. Curved trees were chosen for the ship's frames and timbers. The trade name for the wood of this species is doussié; it is known for being resistant to decay and termites.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Afzelia africana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
