Chlamydocola chlamydantha (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Fruit
Stimulant
Medicinal
Timber
Fuel
Food security

Chlamydocola chlamydantha (K.Schum.) M.Bodard

Protologue: Journ. Agr. Trop. Bot. Appl. 1: 313 (1954).

Family: Sterculiaceae (APG: Malvaceae)

Synonyms

• Cola chlamydantha K.Schum. (1900).

Origin and geographic distribution

Chlamydocola chlamydantha occurs from Guinea and Sierra Leone to the Central African Republic and DR Congo.

Uses

The wood of Chlamydocola chlamydantha is used for pestles, house construction, and as firewood. The sour-sweet fruit pulp is edible. The seed cotyledons are chewed as an inferior substitute of those of the true kola (mainly Cola acuminata (P.Beauv.) Schott & Endl. and Cola nitida (Vent.) Schott & Endl.). Mucilage prepared from young branches or fruits is used in sauces. Decoctions of the bark are taken to calm intestinal pain in Côte d’Ivoire, and against cough in Central Africa. The colourless liquid from the fruit cavity is used to treat eye inflammation in Central Africa.

Properties

The heartwood is yellowish brown; the sapwood greyish. The texture is coarse. The wood is rather hard and heavy. The liquid from the fruit cavity has been shown to inhibit seed germination in all species tested.

Description

• Small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall; bole straight, up to 30 cm in diameter; outer bark brown, smooth, flaking, inner bark c. 0.5 cm thick, yellow when cut, fibrous.
• Leaves alternate, grouped at the ends of branches, digitately compound with 5–10 leaflets; stipules lanceolate, 1–5(–11) cm long, folded along midrib, reddish pubescent, rather long persistent; petiole 10–80 cm long, grooved, glabrous; petiolules up to 5.5 cm long; leaflets elliptical to oblong-elliptical, up to 60 cm × 20 cm, entire, base cuneate, apex acuminate, glabrous, reddish brown but pink when young.
• Inflorescence a fascicle on old branches, wrapped in ovate bracts c. 8 mm × 6 mm.
• Flowers unisexual or bisexual, regular, sessile or almost sessile; calyx campanulate, with c. 1.5 cm long tube, 5-lobed, greyish outside, reddish or purplish inside; corolla absent; male flowers with c. 2 cm long calyx, androphore 3.5–6 mm long carrying a whorl of 15–25 sessile anthers surrounding rudimentary carpels; female and bisexual flowers with c. 2.5 cm long calyx, ovary superior, consisting of 7–14 carpels surrounded by a whorl of rudimentary or functional anthers c. 3 mm long.
• Fruit consisting of 9–12 erect follicles arranged in a whorl around a disk-shaped receptacle; follicles oblong-ellipsoid, curved, 6–15 cm × 3–6 cm, with a short and recurved beak, orange or red, densely shortly hairy, filled with a viscous liquid, indehiscent, 7–25(–30)-seeded.
• Seeds ovoid, laterally compressed, 2–3 cm × 1–1.5 cm, scarlet, albuminous.
• Seedling with epigeal germination; hypocotyl 8–10 cm long, epicotyl 1.5–3 cm long; cotyledons ovoid, c. 7.5 cm × 5 cm; first leaf entire.

Other botanical information

Chlamydocola comprises 2 species, one only known from Gabon.

In Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana Chlamydocola chlamydantha flowers from September–November, and fruiting is from December–February.

Ecology

Chlamydocola chlamydantha occurs in the understorey of deciduous and evergreen forest, including secondary forest, often in relatively humid locations such as along watercourses. In Central Africa it is also recorded from swamp forest.

Management

Chlamydocola chlamydantha coppices well. It is sometimes considered a weed in silvicultural operations. Chlamydocola chlamydantha is a host tree of Cacao Swollen Shoot Virus (CSSV) causing swollen shoot disease in cocoa, a disease which has had a devastating effect on cocoa production in Ghana and neighbouring countries. Control of this disease in cocoa includes elimination of Chlamydocola chlamydantha from the vicinity.

Genetic resources

In view of its wide distribution, Chlamydocola chlamydantha is not threatened by genetic erosion.

Prospects

In view of the relatively small size of the stem, the role of Chlamydocola chlamydantha as a source of timber will remain limited. Moreover, as a host of the devastating Cacao Swollen Shoot Virus it is unlikely to become a popular tree in West Africa.

Major references

• Burkill, H.M., 2000. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 5, Families S–Z, Addenda. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 686 pp.

• Germain, R. & Bamps, P., 1963. Sterculiaceae. In: Robyns, W., Staner, P., Demaret, F., Germain, R., Gilbert, G., Hauman, L., Homès, M., Jurion, F., Lebrun, J., Vanden Abeele, M. & Boutique, R. (Editors). Flore du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi. Spermatophytes. Volume 10. Institut National pour l’Étude Agronomique du Congo belge, Brussels, Belgium. pp. 205–316.

• Hallé, N., 1961. Sterculiacées. Flore du Gabon. Volume 2. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. 150 pp.

• Irvine, F.R., 1961. Woody plants of Ghana, with special reference to their uses. Oxford University Press, London, United Kingdom. 868 pp.

• Kryn, J.M. & Fobes, E.W., 1959. The woods of Liberia. Report 2159. USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin, United States. 147 pp.

Other references

• Aké Assi, L., Abeye, J., Guinko, S., Riguet, R. & Bangavou, X., 1985. Médecine traditionnelle et pharmacopée - Contribution aux études ethnobotaniques et floristiques en République Centrafricaine. Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique, Paris, France. 140 pp.

• Bodard, M., 1954. Note sur quelques kolatiers Africains. Journal d’Agriculture Tropicale et de Botanique Appliquée 1(7–9): 312–316.

• Bouquet, A. & Debray, M., 1974. Plantes médicinales de la Côte d’Ivoire. Travaux et Documents No 32. ORSTOM, Paris, France. 231 pp.

• Cheek, M., 2002. Three new species of Cola (Sterculiaceae) from western Cameroon. Kew Bulletin 57: 403–415.

• Keay, R.W.J., 1958. Sterculiaceae. In: Keay, R.W.J. (Editor). Flora of West Tropical Africa. Volume 1, part 2. 2nd Edition. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. pp. 310–332.

• Miège, M.N. & Miège, J., 1970. Etude comparative des liquids contenus dans les fruits de deux espèces de Cola: C. gigantea et C. chlamydantha. Déductions taxonomiques. Candollea 25(1): 143–170.

• Neuwinger, H.D., 2000. African traditional medicine: a dictionary of plant use and applications. Medpharm Scientific, Stuttgart, Germany. 589 pp.

• Schroth, G., Krauss, U., Gasparotto, L., Duarte Aguilar, J. A. & Vohland, K., 2000. Pests and diseases in agroforestry systems of the humid tropics. Agroforestry Systems 50(3): 199–241.

• Vivien, J. & Faure, J.J., 1989. Fruitiers sauvages du Cameroun. Fruits Paris 44(6): 351–362.

Author(s)

• M. Brink, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Brink, M., 2007. Chlamydocola chlamydantha (K.Schum.) M.Bodard. In: Louppe, D., Oteng-Amoako, A.A. & Brink, M. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. Accessed 6 March 2025.

• See the Prota4U database.