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Senegal mahogany

Khaya senegalensis

Also called African Mahogany, Benin Mahogany, Dry Zone Mahogany, Dryzone Mahogany

1 NParks heritage tree in Singapore: Found in Singapore Botanic Gardens, Lawn B

Senegal mahogany
Photo: Binh Giang, Public domain

Senegal mahogany is a fast-growing medium-sized tree from the dry and savannah zones of West and Central Africa, grown for valuable timber and medicinal bark. It is most drought tolerant when established from seedlings with a deep root system.

Family
Meliaceae (Meli family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun
Water
Water regularly while young, then tolerates long dry spells once its deep root system forms.
Soil
Deep, well-drained soil; tolerates a range of soil types.
Temperature
Warm tropical to subtropical conditions; protect young trees from frost.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
W. Trop. Africa to N. Uganda
Climate
seasonally dry tropical

About

Khaya senegalensis is a species of tree in the Meliaceae family that is native to Africa. Common names include African mahogany, dry zone mahogany, Gambia mahogany, khaya wood, Senegal mahogany, cailcedra, acajou, djalla, and bois rouge.

Where it grows

The tree is native to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, and Uganda. It is found in riparian forests and higher-rainfall savannah woodlands; in moist regions, it is found on higher ground. Within its first year, the seedling develops a deep root system that makes it the most drought resistant member of its genus.

Uses

K. senegalensis has been extensively studied for trypanocidal activity. Atawodi et al 2003, Wurochekke and Nok 2004, Mikail 2009, Aderbauer et al 2008, Umar et al 2010, Adeiza et al 2010, Ibrahim et al 2008, and Ibrahim et al 2013a investigate extracts of stem bark both in vitro and in vivo in rats, against T. evansi, T. congolense and T. b. brucei. All showed promising results and a few demonstrated an effective dose.

Other Khaya plants

East African Mahogany · African Mahogany · African Mahogany · African mahogany

[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 Khaya senegalensis 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.

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