Humiriaceae FAMILY
Sacoglottis gabonensis
Sacoglottis gabonensis
Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
3/5
Safety & Hazards
The bark is used as a fish poison[1].
Cultivation Details
HabitEvergreen Tree
Growth—
The tree can be coppiced[1]. The plant may have evolved from seeds, which arrived on the West African coast from South America, being one of the most illustrative cases of dispersal by water from South America to Africa. The resin-filled chambers of the stone make it float in water and seeds remain viable for up to 4 years[1].
Propagation
Seeds take 2 - 4 months to germinate. The germination rate is quite low[1]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Sacoglottis+gabonensis>
Pollinators
Data unavailable
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]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.
- [3]Contributions from the United States National Herbarium Vol. 35 — Smithsonian Institution Press; Washington. · 1968 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org ↩︎A treatment of the genus Theobroma and a monograph of the Humiriaceae are two of the various articles contained in this issue. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
- [4]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.
- [5]Tropix 7 — CIRAD · http://tropix.cirad.fr/en ↩︎An on-line guide to the timbers of 245 species of trees.