Common Name:

General Information

Diospyros sanza-minika is an evergreen tree usually growing up to 25 metres tall, exceptionally to 40 metres. The long, straight, cylindrical bole is usually up to 60cm in diameter, exceptionally to 90cm, and is free of buttresses[].
The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a medicine and source of wood, possibly also as a food.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

West tropical Africa - Sierra Leone to Ghana, also in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo.

Habitat

Humid, evergreen forests[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	25.00 m
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

The bark is conspicuously black, and regularly and deeply fissured, characters by which the tree is readily identified, and which are recognised in the Sehwi name meaning ‘elephant’s back.’ It is extremely hard and is difficult to cut with an axe, evoking the name ‘flint bark.’ It is highly resistant to decay and is said to survive when a tree dies in the forest as a hollow cylinder long after the wood within has rotted away[].
We have seen no individual confirmation for this species, but in general Diospyros species are dioecious and require both male and female forms to be grown if fruit and seed are required[].

Edible Uses

The fruit contains a gelatinous white pulp of doubtful edibility[].

Medicinal

The leaves are pulped and made into a poultice for application to areas of pains on the sides of the body[].

The plant (part unstated) is used to treat giddiness and attacks of epilepsy[].

Other Uses

The wood is not sharply demarcated into sap and heart-wood. The outer younger wood is greyish white, becoming pink with small streaks of black towards the centre, and sometimes under certain conditions becoming all black. It is very hard, heavy and difficult to work, fine-textured and durable. It is considered a construction-timber of secondary importance and is used for heavy construction work, telegraph poles, turnery and rollers for textile manufacture, and has been valued for pit-props. It has some resilience for which it is good for implement-handles such as pickaxes, hammers, axes, shafts of harpoons, fish-spears, spears and stocks of crossbows. Small poles are somewhat flexible and are used as a spring in game-traps, and the slender stems are used as wattles in mud-houses and for lacing into cages[].
The wood is used as fire-sticks[].

Propagation

Seed - in general the seed of Diospyros species has a very short viability and so should be sown as soon as possible. The flesh should be removed since this contains germination inhibitors. Sow the seed in a shady position in a nursery seedbed. The sowing media for ebony uses soil and fine sand at the ratio 3:1. The seed is planted horizontally or vertically with the radicle end down, with a sowing depth of 1 - 1½ times the thickness of seed. Distance between the seeds is 3 - 5cm. Seeds are very sensitive to desiccation during germination and early growth, so must be regularly watered at this time. Normally the seed will germinate after one week[].
As a rule fresh seeds have a high percentage of fertility. The seedlings develop long taproots at an early stage, often before any appreciable elongation of the shoot takes place. The growth of the seedling is decidedly slow [].

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