Common Name:

General Information

Uapaca mole is an evergreen tree with a dense, low-branching, rounded crown; it can grow up to 40 metres tall, though usually much smaller and occasionally no more than a shrub. The straight bole is fluted, about 60cm in diameter and is usually on stilt roots that can be up to 6 metres high[, , ].
A popular wild fruit, the tree is harvested from the wild as a local source of food, medicines and wood. It is also sometimes planted to provide shade[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Tropical Africa - Liberia to Cameroon, DR Congo and Uganda, south to northern Angola and Tanzania.

Habitat

Swamp and lakeside forest, fringing forest and rainforest, on slopes and crests as well as in well-drained valley bottoms, at elevations up to 1,400 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	15.00 m
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant of low to moderate elevations in the moist tropics.

The tree responds well to pollarding and coppicing[].
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seeds are required.

Edible Uses

Fruit[, ]. The ripe, yellow pulp has a taste like avocados (Persea americana), and is a popular wild snack[, ]. The ripe fruit can be squeezed into juice and drunk before or after being cooled[]. The green to brown fruit is an ovoid to globose drupe 25 - 30mm × 15 - 20mm[].

Medicinal

A root infusion is used to treat headache caused by fever. Painful parts are embrocated with the crushed roots to ease the pain. A root infusion is considered expectorant and taken to treat a blocked nose, pulmonary afflictions, flu with headache, fever and fever-pains - the body is also massaged with the lees of the infusion[, ].

A root bark or stem bark decoction is drunk to treat female sterility, dysentery and food-poisoning. It is also used as a mouth wash to treat toothache, as a vapour bath to treat rheumatism and oedema, as an enema to treat piles and in baths to strengthen rachitic and premature children[, ].

Pulped leaves or stem bark with palm oil are applied to furuncles to mature them; to treat migraine and rheumatism; and are used as a massage on children who are late in learning to walk[, ].

Other Uses

The sapwood is pinkish white; the heartwood is darker and shiny when sawn[]. The wood is used as timber for general purposes, boxes, crates and for making domestic utensils such as spoons and cups[, ].
The wood is used for fuel and making charcoal[, ].
We do not have any more information for the wood of this species. However, a general description for the wood of the West African, stilt-rooted members of this genus is as follows:-
The heartwood is a pale red, red-brown, or chocolate-brown; it is usually not clearly demarcated from the paler sapwood. The texture is mostly medium to coarse; the grain generally straight; there is little lustre. The heartwood ranges from moderately durable to highly so, and is moderately resistant to termite attack. Generally care is required in seasoning, best results are obtained if quartersawn, logs should be converted soon after extraction to minimize shake
and checking. The wood saws with some difficulty due to a high silica content, it generally finishes well and glues satisfactorily. It is used for purposes such as light construction, boatbuilding, flooring[].

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe[].

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: a square has how many sides?