Fabaceae FAMILY

Piptadeniastrum africanum

Edibility

0/5

Medicinal

2/5

Safety & Hazards

The stem bark is very toxic^[1]. It is used in arrow poisons, as an ordeal poison; a fish poison; and is mixed with rice to poison mice^[1]. The sawdust may irritate the skin and mucous membranes^[2].

Cultivation Details

HabitSemi-deciduous Tree

Growth—

Found in deep moist soils in the wild^[3]. Seedlings are often common in the forest, even in dark shade^[1]. However, they grow very poorly in shade, where they may be only 20 - 35 cm tall when 3 years old, whereas they may reach up to 150 cm tall after 4 years in less shaded conditions in the forest^[1]. Saplings and young trees demand light, and are usually found in small gaps in the forest^[1]. Mean annual bole diameter increments vary widely according to geographic location. Young trees in Senegal achieved 12mm, whilst in the Cote d'Ivoire it was 4.9 mm^[1]. In Nigeria a tree reached 90cm bole diameter in 71 years^[1]. The tree coppices well^[2]. The flowers are a good source of honey^[1]. This species can be confused with Samanea dinklagei and Parkia biglobosa^[3]. This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby^[4].

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe since it has a short viability and cannot be stored for more than one month. It does not show dormancy, and usually germinates in 1 - 3 weeks^[1]. In a germination test, 96% of the seeds germinated within 8 days^[1]. The seed should be sown in lightly shaded nursery beds. The growth of seedlings is slow and they may stay in the nursery for more than one year before planting out^[1]. Seeds for planting are collected from the forest floor. Wildlings are sometimes collected for planting^[1]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Piptadeniastrum+africanum>

Pollinators

Bees

References

[1]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.
[2]Tropical Timbers of the World. Ag. Handbook No. 607. — Chudnoff. Martin. · USDA Forest Service. Wisconsin. · 1984 ↩︎Terse details on the properties of the wood of almost 400 species of trees from the Tropics.
[3]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.
[4]Nodulation Plants in GRIN Taxonomy — United States Department of Agriculture · http://www.ars-grin.gov/~sbmljw/cgi-bin/taxnodul.pl?language=en ↩︎An online database listing plants that have either positive or negative reports on root and stem nodulation with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
[5]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/
[6]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.
[7]Tropix 7 — CIRAD · http://tropix.cirad.fr/en ↩︎An on-line guide to the timbers of 245 species of trees.