Cuviera macroura (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Timber

Cuviera macroura K.Schum.

distribution in Africa (wild)

Protologue: Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 33(2): 352 (1903).

Family: Rubiaceae

Synonyms

• Cuviera djalonensis A.Chev. (1920).

Origin and geographic distribution

Cuviera macroura is distributed from Guinea and Sierra Leone eastward to Cameroon.

Uses

Larger boles are used for dug-out canoes, whereas branches are used as yam stakes.

Description

• Shrub or small tree up to 12 m tall; crown spreading; branches with opposite spines between the nodes; twigs often hollow and ant-infested.
• Leaves opposite, simple and entire; stipules often with ear-shaped lobes, persistent; petiole short; blade oblong-elliptical to narrowly oblong, more or less asymmetrical, up to 20 cm × 6 cm, base obliquely cuneate to rounded, margins wavy, leathery, glabrous, shiny, pinnately veined with 6–10 pairs of lateral veins.
• Inflorescence an axillary cyme c. 7.5 cm long, branched from the base; bracts thread-like, glabrous.
• Flowers bisexual, regular, 5-merous, white turning yellow, fragrant; bracteoles subulate, c. 1 cm × 1 mm; calyx glabrous, lobes subulate, c. 1 cm × 1 mm; corolla c. 2 cm long, lobes lanceolate, with thread-like tips at apex; stamens inserted in corolla tube, alternating with corolla lobes; ovary inferior, 5-celled.
• Fruit a nearly globose drupe c. 4.5 cm long, 5-ridged.

Other botanical information

In Benin Cuviera macroura flowers in August and fruits ripen in November–February.

Cuviera comprises about 30 species, all in tropical Africa, but the genus is poorly known. It is possibly close to Vangueriella, but the group of Vanguerieae, in which Cuviera is classified, is in need of revision to elucidate the relationships between taxa.

Cuviera acutiflora

Cuviera acutiflora DC. is a shrub or small tree up to 10 m tall distributed from Guinea and Sierra Leone to Gabon and DR Congo. In Sierra Leone the wood is used for making house wattles. In Nigeria the leaf is made into a laxative for children.

Ecology

Cuviera macroura occurs in wet locations in savanna, secondary forest, forest edges and swamp forest.

Genetic resources

In view of its wide distribution and wide range of habitats, Cuviera macroura seems not threatened with genetic erosion.

Prospects

Cuviera macroura is only locally used as a source of wood for canoes and stakes. Information on its wood properties is lacking, but in view of its limited actual use and small size its importance is unlikely to increase.

Major references

• Akoègninou, A., van der Burg, W.J. & van der Maesen, L.J.G. (Editors), 2006. Flore analytique du Bénin. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands. 1034 pp.

• Aubréville, A., 1959. La flore forestière de la Côte d’Ivoire. Deuxième édition révisée. Tome troisième. Publication No 15. Centre Technique Forestier Tropical, Nogent-sur-Marne, France. 334 pp.

• Burkill, H.M., 1997. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 4, Families M–R. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 969 pp.

• Hepper, F.N. & Keay, R.W.J., 1963. Rubiaceae. In: Hepper, F.N. (Editor). Flora of West Tropical Africa. Volume 2. 2nd Edition. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. pp. 104–223.

Other references

• Fauna & Flora International, undated. Tree Atlas of Liberia. [Internet] http://www.liberianfaunaflora.org/ FFI/ Page.aspx?p=30&ix=3022. April 2012.

• Hawthorne, W., 1990. Field guide to the forest trees of Ghana. Natural Resources Institute, for the Overseas Development Administration, London, United Kingdom. 275 pp.

• Hawthorne, W.D., 1995. Ecological profiles of Ghanaian forest trees. Tropical Forestry Papers 29. Oxford Forestry Institute, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. 345 pp.

• Hawthorne, W. & Jongkind, C., 2006. Woody plants of western African forests: a guide to the forest trees, shrubs and lianes from Senegal to Ghana. Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. 1023 pp.

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

• Tchouto, M.G.P., 2004. Plant diversity in a Central African rain forest: implications for biodiversity conservation in Cameroon. Tropenbos Cameroon Series 7, Tropenbos International, Wageningen, Netherlands. 208 pp.

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., 2012. Cuviera macroura K.Schum. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Louppe, D. & Oteng-Amoako, A.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands.

Accessed 31 March 2025.

• See the Prota4U database.