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African Sandalwood

Baphia

Also called Baphias

African Sandalwood
Photo: Mokkie, CC BY-SA 3.0

Baphia is a small genus of tropical African legume trees and shrubs with simple leaves, best known for Baphia nitida (camwood), whose heartwood yields a red dye. Commonly grown members are rare outside their native range, and the genus is mainly grown for timber and dye rather than as a garden plant.

Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Light
Full sun
Water
Water regularly while establishing, then allow the top of the soil to dry between waterings.
Soil
Well-drained, fertile soil or loam
Temperature
20–35 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Moderate

About

Baphia is a small genus of legumes that bear simple leaves. Baphia is from the Greek word βάπτω (báptō-, "to dip" or "to dye"), referring to a red dye that is extracted from the heartwood of tropical species. The genus is restricted to the African tropics. Baphia was traditionally assigned to the tribe Sophoreae; however, recent molecular phylogenetic analyses reassigned Baphia to the tribe Baphieae.

Other Baphia plants

Camwood

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Baphia 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.

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