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Meliaceae FAMILY Vulnerable

Turraeanthus africanus

Turraeanthus africanus

Edibility
0/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The bark is used as a fish poison; the leaves are occasionally also used for the same purpose[1]. The sawdust is very irritant and may even cause internal bleeding in wood workers; good ventilation is required[1, 2].

Cultivation Details

HabitTree
Growth—

Young seedlings require shade, but saplings need more light for proper development, preferring small gaps in the forest. Too much light, however, often results in low branching[1]. Plants often prefer sandy soils in the wild[1]. Often found in poorly drained soils in the wild[3]. Trees respond well to coppicing and pollarding[1]. In tests in Guinea, all seedlings planted in full sun had died after 2 years, whereas more than 80% of the seedlings planted in forest understorey had survived after 3 years. Growth was slow, however, with a mean height of 150 cm after 6 years[1]. Trees can produce flowers throughout the year[1]. For trees in natural forest the minimum allowed felling diameter at breast height (dbh) is 60cm in Côte d’Ivoire, 70cm in Ghana and 80cm in Liberia[1].

Propagation

Seed - the viability is very short and so it should be sown immediately after collection. When fresh seeds are sown the germination rate can be up to 80% within 5 - 7 weeks. Young seedlings require moist soil and quite deep shade[1]. Seedlings need 10 months to reach 10cm in height, and they have to stay in the nursery for at least one year, until the first compound leaves appear[1]. Wildlings are occasionally collected from the forest for planting, but they are very susceptible to drought[1]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Turraeanthus+africanus>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [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. [2]Tropix 7 — CIRAD · http://tropix.cirad.fr/en ↩︎An on-line guide to the timbers of 245 species of trees.
  3. [3]IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — http://www.iucnredlist.org/ ↩︎A list of plants under threat and facing possible extinction, usually with brief details of the threats and information on habitat.
  4. [4]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/
  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.