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Pentadesma butyracea
Clusiaceae FAMILY

Pentadesma butyracea

Pentadesma butyracea

Edibility
3/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The bark is used as a fish-poison[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitEvergreen Tree
GrowthMedium

A plant of lowland moist tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 800 metres[1]. It does not occur in areas where the mean annual rainfall is less than 1,000mm[2]. Prefers a deep soil[2]. Often found growing wild in leached soils[2]. Under plantation conditions trees have grown to a height of 9 metre in 10 years[1]. Trees first flower when about 8 metres tall. Flowering occurs during a large part of the year, but mainly during the main rainy season[2]. The flowers produce large amounts of nectar, which is eaten by monkeys; they are probably important pollinators[2]. The tree suckers freely from stumps[1].

Propagation

Seed - they germinate rapidly within the fruit; therefore fruit removal before sowing is not required[3]. Fresh seeds germinate well under shade at ambient conditions. Germination starts after about 15 days and reaches 98% two months after sowing. Germinated seeds grow into normal seedlings in nurseries, reaching 10 - 28cm high after 4 months[3] Fresh seeds that are conserved in moist jute bags maintain 100% viability after 1 month. However, when using polyethylene bags, only 15% germinate. Drying does not improve germination; dried seeds stored for two months in ambient conditions germinated to 14% within three months[3]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Pentadesma+butyracea>

Pollinators

Monkeys

References

  1. [1]The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. — Burkil. H. M. · Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. · 1985 - 2004 ↩︎Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/
  2. [2]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.
  3. [3]Seed Leaflets — Various · Forest & Landscape. Denmark · http://en.sl.life.ku.dk/Publikationer/Udgivelser/PopulaerPublikationer.aspx?katid={D28373CC-6EF3-4EF8-B097-6D83FABF209E}&serieid={9F1C3DB1-6E7B-4CF1-AF53-F480B0CB40EF}&sort=title ↩︎A series of leaflets, jointly produced by the University of Copenhagen and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, focussing on seed information for a number species, but also giving a lot of other information about each plant.
  4. [4]African Flowering Plants Database — Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques. · http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/recherche.php ↩︎Contains information on over 150,000 plant names (including synonyms) giving a description and habitat, plus a distribution map.
  5. [5]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.
  6. [6]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
  7. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎