Baikiaea insignis, known as nkoba, is a tropical African legume tree from the Fabaceae family, noted for very large white flowers. It grows in wet tropical forest, so it needs warmth, humidity and reliably moist soil.
Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Part shade, Bright indirect
Water
Keep soil consistently moist, but never waterlogged.
Soil
Fertile, well-drained loamy soil rich in organic matter.
Temperature
22–32 °C; protect below 15 °C
How easy
Hard
Native range
SE. Nigeria to W. Tanzania and Angola
Climate
wet tropical
About
Baikiaea insignis is a species of legume in the family Fabaceae.
Baikiaea insignis ranges through the Guineo-Congolian region into eastern Africa, from Senegal through Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern Angola, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania. It has very large flowers; the four white petals each being up to 20 cm (7.9 in) long and up to 7 cm (2.8 in) wide, with the yellow fifth petal only half as big. With a total width of 40 cm (16 in) it is possibly the widest flower in Africa, and among the largest known tree-borne flowers, (but also see Pachira insignis).
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Baikiaea insignis 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.