Cultivation Details
A plant of the moist to semi arid tropics, where it is found at elevations from near sea level to 1,740 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 14 - 36°c, but can tolerate 8 - 44°c[2]. Mature plants can be killed by temperatures of -8°c or lower, but young growth can be severely damaged at 0°c[2]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 650 - 850mm, but tolerates 600 - 900mm[2]. The mean annual rainfall in its area of distribution is 1,000 - 1,200mm[3]. The plant shows a strong preference for deep, loose, sandy soil[2]. Prefers a pH in the range 5 - 7, tolerating 4.5 - 7.5[2]. The root system is often shallow and can extend for many metres from the bole[3]. Young trees reach sexual maturity when the bole diameter is about 12.5 cm[3]. Plants with a bole diameter of 12.5cm or more generally recover after forest fires, being protected by the thickness of their bark[3, 2]. Trees usually respond well to coppicing[3].
Propagation
Seed - it often has a low germination rate, and the germination time is very variable, from 10 days to 6 months or more[3]. Because it has a hard seedcoat, it may benefit from scarification before sowing to speed up germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing[PFAF]. It has been reported that seedlings often die off in the seed tray or when transplanted. However, experiments showed that if the seedlings are transplanted into a well-drained, sandy soil with superphosphate, the rates of survival can be quite high. Seedlings should be given 70 - 80% shade and water once every week. Red sandy soil gives the best results[3]. Cuttings produce leaves and shoots that often soon die off[3]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-19. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Burkea+africana>
Pollinators
Bees
References
- [1]Grassland Species - Profiles — http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Gbase/Default.htm ↩︎Terse information on over 650 species of plants that grow in grassland, including trees, shrubs and perennial plants as well as grasses. Gives a brief description of the plant, its range and habitat and some of its uses.
- [2]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
- [3]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
- [4]Flora Zambesiaca — http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html ↩︎An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants.
- [5]Flora of Zimbabwe — http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/ ↩︎Over 2,000 species as of 2009 (and growing). Each record usually has at least one photo with a botanical description of the plant, range, habitat etc. A very useful site.
- [6]Traditional Vegetables in Benin — Achigan-Dako E. Et al · Darwin Initiative; International Foundation for Science · 2009 ↩︎Issued as a PDF on the Internet, it contains basic information on over 250 species of plants used for food in Benin.
- [7]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
- [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎