Common Name: West African Ebony

General Information

West African ebony is an evergreen tree with a rounded, dense crown; it varies considerably in height, sometimes flowering as a shrub when just 3 metres tall, growing 12 - 15 metres tall in drier areas of its range and 25 metres or more (with reports of trees up to 50 metres) in the wetter areas. The bole, which is sometimes fluted at the base, can be up to 60cm in diameter[, ].
The wood is highly prized and therefore commonly harvested from the wild and traded internationally. The tree is an important source of food, medicine and other commodities for the local people and is often kept unfelled when land is being cleared for farming[]. It is thus to be found in a state of being tended if not actually cultivated near villages[, ].

Known Hazards

Sawdust of this species, as also of most Diospyros spp., causes dermatitis after continuous contact[].

Botanical References

Range

Tropical Africa - Senegal to Eritrea and Yemen, south to Namibia, Transvaal and Mozambique.

Habitat

Riparian forest, more rarely on termite mounds or rocky outcrops or in dry semi-evergreen forest at elevations of 60 - 1,370 metres[]. Drier northern borders of the humid rain-forest zone especially in wet situations[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	20.00 m
Pollinators	Bees
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Semi-cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant of the dry to moist tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 1,300 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 16 - 27°c, but can tolerate 12 - 34°c[]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 500 - 1,300mm, but tolerates 400 - 1,500mm[].
Prefers a sunny position[]. Prefers heavy soils[]. Prefers rocky soils along seasonal water courses and swamps[]. It grows well in moist, red loams, volcanic and loamy sands[]. Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 6.5, tolerating 5 - 7[].
Trees can be coppiced[].
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required.

Edible Uses

Fruit - raw, cooked, dried or made into beverages by fermentation[, , ]. A sweet flavour[, ], similar to the persimmon (D. kaki)[]. A kind of soft toffee can be made from the fruits, which along with some other similar edible fruits, such as figs and dates, are known as lubiya[]. The globose, yellow fruit is up to 25mm in diameter[].

The leaves are sometimes eaten[, ].

Medicinal

The plant is widely used in traditional medicine in parts of Africa, and a number of medically active constituents have been isolated. The principle constituent appears to be plumbagin, which has been shown to have antibiotic, antihaemorrhagic and fungistatic properties. It is found in the root-bark to a concentration of 0.9% and but a trace in the leaves[]. Tannin, saponin and a substance probably identical to scopolamine are also present[]. There is a high fluoride content[].

The leaves are astringent, febrifuge, haemostatic, mildly laxative, stimulant and vermifuge[, ]. Such reliance is placed on this drug-plant that it is usually prescribed alone[]. An infusion is used in the treatment of a range of conditions - it is very effective in the treatment of fevers and infectious fevers; and is also used for dysentery; pneumonia; syphilis; leprosy and yaws[, ]. A decoction of leafy twigs is taken in draught as a poison-antidote[].

The leaves and fruit are used internally for treating menorrhoea and dysenteriform diarrhoea[].
Externally, they are used in the treatment of headaches, arthritis and dermal troubles[].
The leaves and fruit are chewed or applied as an infusion for treating gingivitis, toothache, as a dressing for cuts and wounds, and to prevent infection[].

The sap is instilled into the ear for treating otitis[].

An infusion of the bark is used to treat stomach aches[].
Applied externally, it is used as a wash on sores, ulcers, etc[].

Shavings of the wood, combined with the pods of Acacia nilotica and roots of Borassus spp, are pounded in water and boiled for about two hours, after which the liquid is used in Nigeria to rinse the mouth for treating toothache[].. Sap from freshly felled trees, as also water from holes in the tree, or an infusion of the black heart-wood, are similarly used[]

Agroforestry Uses:

Said to be a suitable species for reforestation[]. Natural regeneration is good[].

Other Uses

The bark contains a dark-coloured gum which is used to mend broken pottery[].

The bark is used for dyeing mats red[].

The fruit-pulp is applied to pottery to glaze and varnish it[].

The wood is used as chew-sticks[].

The heartwood is black, very hard, but appears only in older trees over a certain girth; it is clearly demarcated from the 5 - 12cm wide band of creamy to reddish yellow sapwood that produces bands of black[]. The freshly cut wood is light pinkish-brown, slightly darker to the centre[]. Blackening of the heart-wood develops only after felling and appears to depend on edaphic characters, trees from savannah situations blackening while those from more thickly forested areas do not[]. Blackening is possibly a pathological process and burying is said to accelerate it[].
The texture is fine; the grain straight or slightly interlocked. The wood is heavy, very hard, strong; very durable, being resistant to fungi, dry wood borers and termites. It seasons slowly, with a high risk of checking or distortion; once dry it is poorly stable in service. The wood is difficult to saw and work, with serious dulling effect on saws and cutting edges - stellite tipped and tungsten carbide tools are recommended; the surfaces take an excellent polish, but picking up of interlocked or curly grain may occur in planing and a reduced cutting angle is recommended; it has a tendency to split upon nailing, and pre-boring is advised; it has good slicing properties, but powerful machines are needed; the gluing properties are satisfactory. The heartwood is valued for black-wood cabinetry, furniture manufacture and high-class carpentry. It is also used for heavy flooring, interior trim, ship building, vehicle bodies, musical instruments (especially the black keys of pianos, but also guitar fingerboards), precision equipment, turnery, carvings, knife-handles and brush backs[, , , , , ]. The sapwood, and sometimes also the heartwood, is used for poles, posts, vehicle bodies, agricultural implements, toys, novelties, sporting goods, combs, ladders, boxes, crates, crossbows, veneer and plywood[].
The wood makes good fuel wood and charcoal[].

Propagation

Seed - pre-soak overnight by immersing the seed in hot water which is allowed to cool in order to break dormancy[]. They should be sown in flat seed trays filled with river sand. Under ideal conditions seeds germinate within 50 days[]. Seedlings are then planted out when they reach the 3-leaf stage because if left longer, the taproot may be damaged when transplanting[]. They are rather slow growing initially but the growth rate speeds up considerably after a year[]. Young trees do not transplant easily[]
Seed storage behaviour is orthodox. Viability can be maintained for one season in open storage, but can be maintained for several years in hermetic storage at 3°c with 5-6% mc[].
Root suckers.

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