This species is very similar to, and easily confused with, Lannea schimperi. Records may be confused[].

Common Name:

General Information

Lannea barteri is a deciduous tree with a spreading crown; it can grow from 5 - 18 metres tall. The bole is usually straight and clear of branches for several meters, it can be up to 40cm in diameter with a thick bark[, ].
The plant is often harvested from the wild for local use. It is an important source of a red-brown dye that is used in traditional dyeing in Africa and also supplies food, medicines and materials[]. The tree is sometimes planted[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Tropical Africa - in a belt from Sierra Leone, through the Central Africa Republic to Ethiopia and Uganda

Habitat

Tall grass savannah; forest edges; gallery forest; woodland with Albizia zygia; rocky ground in stream valley; wooded grassland with Combretum collinum; savannah with Lonchocarpus, Vitex cienkowskii, clay soils; at elevations to 1,600 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Deciduous Tree
Height	12.00 m
Pollinators	Bees
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

The tree coppices easily[].
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required[].

Edible Uses

Fruit - raw. The resinous fruit pulp is eaten occasionally[, ]. The purplish-red fruit is a compressed cylindrical drupe 10 - 13mm long and 7 - 8mm wide[].

Medicinal

The bark is stomachic. A decoction is drunk as a treatment for gastric pains, diarrhoea, oedema, paralysis, epilepsy and madness[, ]. When combined with the bark of ukuku (Yoruba, species) it is used as a vermifuge[, ].
The bark is used externally to treat ulcers, sores and leprosy.

A root decoction is taken to cure hernia[].
The root is ground, wrapped in the leaves of an unknown species, and applied as a poultice on wounds[, ].

A leaf decoction is taken to cure haemorrhoids[].

Agroforestry Uses:

The plan coppices easily and is readily grown from cuttings, sot is sometimes cultivated as a live fence[].
The flowers attract bees and may be useful for producing honey[, ].

Other Uses

The bark is fibrous and is used to produce a cordage[, ].

The bark contains a gummy secretion which becomes white and friable in the air[, ]. No uses are mentioned.

The bark yields a dye. Its red-orange-brown colour is associated with blood and war as well as mourning. In Ghana the dye, known in Akan as ‘kuntunkuni’ or ‘kobewu’, serves to give the symbolic dark red to red-brown colour of 'adinkra' clothes worn at the funerals of chiefs and afterwards by their mourning relatives. Adinkra is also the name of the technique by which these red mourning clothes and other types of fabrics are decorated with hand-stamped black designs[, ].
The bark is pounded or cut up into small pieces and then boiled in water for a long time. The cooled decoction is filtered and the fabric to be dyed is kept in the dye bath for at least 24 hours. Red, red-brown or orange-red colours are obtained without mordanting[].

The wood is soft, dirty white, coarse-grained and without worth[]. It is used to make small utensils such as mortars[].
The wood is used for firewood and charcoal[].

Propagation

Seed - it should be sown within 2 months of collection[].
Cuttings strike easily, even when taken from large branches[].

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