Common Name:

General Information

Cassipourea malosana is an evergreen tree with a small, rounded crown; it can grow from 6 - 45 metres tall. It has a conspicuously straight, pale, cylindrical, unbuttressed bole that can be unbranched for up to 20 metres and up to 60cm in diameter[, ].
An important timber tree in east Africa, where the tree is commonly harvested from the wild. The tree is also sometimes planted to provide shade[, ].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

East tropical Africa - Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, eastern DR Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique.

Habitat

Dry forest with Juniperus and Podocarpus-Olea as undercanopy tree; moist forest; mixed forest; thickets; at elevations from 1,000 - 3,100 metres[].

Properties

Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	20.00 m
Pollinators	Bees
Cultivation Status	Ornamental, Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant of the moist tropics, it is found in areas where the mean annual rainfall is in excess of 2,200mm[].

Edible Uses

None known

Medicinal

The outer bark is boiled with soup and eaten to gain strength[].
A tea made from the scraped inner bark is drunk by women to help to remove the placenta[].
The bark is used as a skin lightener, and to treat skin ailments and sunburn[].

Agroforestry Uses:

The tree is found in catchment areas (wet montane forest) and contributes to soil conservation of these areas[].
The flowers are a good source of nectar for bees[].

Other Uses

The heartwood is white to light brown often with purplish streaks resulting from fungal attack; it is not differentiated from the sapwood. Texture is fine and even; grain usually straight but with a slight to marked tendency to spiralling. A very hard and heavy timber, it is not durable and not resistant to termite attack[, , ]. The wood dries slowly and is subject to distortion. Sawing of the green timber is difficult because of its tendency to spring, but the dry wood is easier to work. It is moderately easy to work using hand tools and has excellent machining properties, especially in moulding, but it may have an appreciable blunting effect on tool edges; a good finish can be obtained; it tends to split on nailing, and pre-boring is necessary; it may be somewhat troublesome to glue and is not suitable for steam bending[, , ]. The wood is suitable for indoor purposes requiring great strength and elasticity such as flooring (especially heavy duty and industrial flooring), turnery, tool handles and construction work[, , ]. It is also suitable for vehicle bodies, furniture and cabinet work, ladders, sporting goods, agricultural implements, joinery, sleepers, poles and piles, toys and novelties, beehives, and for veneer and plywood[]
The wood is used for fuel[].

Propagation

Seed -

Add a Comment:

If you have any useful information about this plant, please leave a comment. Comments have to be approved before they are shown here.

Name:

Email(Private):

Message:

Captcha: what is greater, 5 or 9?