Trichoscypha arborea (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Fruit
Essential oil / exudate
Medicinal
Timber
Fibre
Food security

Trichoscypha arborea (A.Chev.) A.Chev.

Protologue: Explor. bot. Afrique occ. franç.: 161 (1920).

Family: Anacardiaceae

Chromosome number: 2n = 48

Origin and geographic distribution

Trichoscypha arborea occurs from eastern Guinea and Sierra Leone east to western Cameroun.

Uses

The wood of Trichoscypha arborea, known in Côte d’Ivoire as ‘dao’, is locally used, mainly for construction. It is also used for canoes and planks. It is suitable for light flooring, joinery, interior trim, furniture, cabinet work, musical instrument, pestles, toys, novelties, veneer, plywood, hardboard and particle board. It is recorded to have some industrial importance in the production of paper pulp, alone or in a mixture with other woods. The bark contains resin which is suitable for vanish production and for medicinal purposes. In Côte d’Ivoire the resin is used by the Guéré people to prevent miscarriage and to treat diarrhoea, dysentery and amenorrhoea. The fruits are edible and largely relished by local people.

Production and international trade

The wood of Trichoscypha arborea is mainly used locally. Production and trade statistics are not available. Bark is commonly sold on local markets in Côte d’Ivoire for medicinal purposes.

Properties

The heartwood is variable in colour, from pinkish grey to reddish brown or yellowish brown with a green-pinkish tinge, often with darker streaks, and distinctly demarcated from the greyish sapwood. The grain is often interlocked, texture rather fine and even. The wood is lustrous, odourless and tasteless when dry.

The wood is moderately heavy, with a density of 730–850 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content, and hard. The drying characteristics are satisfactory, although the rates of shrinkage may be considerable. At 12% moisture content, the modulus of rupture is 151–172 N/mm², modulus of elasticity 16,170 N/mm², compression parallel to grain 61–69 N/mm², cleavage 20–24 N/mm, Chalais-Meudon side hardness 3.5–5.2 and Janka side hardness 8940 N.

The wood is not difficult to saw and work, but has a tendency to develop rough surfaces. It is moderately durable with an expected outdoor service life of 8–15 years; it is liable to attacks by Lyctus borers, termites and marine borers.

The 5-deoxyflavonoids sulphuretin, fisetin and rengasin have been isolated from the heartwood of Trichoscypha arborea.

The mean weight of a fruit is 45 g, with about 80% of a sweet pulp.

Description

Evergreen, dioecious, small to medium-sized tree up to 30 m tall; bole often branchless to a considerable height, usually straight but sometimes twisted, up to 50 cm in diameter, often with small buttresses; bark surface slightly flakey, greyish, inner bark fibrous, reddish brown to purplish brown, exuding small dots of whitish resin; crown small and dense; branches more or less whorled. Leaves alternate, clustered near ends of twigs, imparipinnately compound with 6–9 pairs of leaflets; stipules absent; petiole and rachis together up to 70 cm long; petiolules 3–15 mm long, wrinkled; leaflets alternate to opposite, narrowly ovate to elliptical, 12–26 cm × 3–9 cm, cuneate at base, acuminate at apex, leathery, glabrous, pinnately veined with 9–14 pairs of lateral veins. Inflorescence a large erect panicle up to 80 cm long, glabrous or slightly short-hairy. Flowers unisexual, regular, 4-merous, red to purplish, nearly sessile; calyx with short lobes, c. 0.5 mm long, hairy; petals free, ovate, c. 1 mm long; disk glabrous; stamens free, alternating with petals; ovary superior, 1-celled, styles 3–4, short; male flowers with strongly reduced ovary, female flowers with reduced stamens Fruit an ellipsoid drupe 2–2.5 cm × 1.5–2 cm, red when ripe, glabrous, with yellow, fibrous but sweetish pulp, 1-seeded. Seedling with hypogeal germination, with cotyledons embedded in fruit pulp; epicotyl 10–12 cm long, longitudinally grooved, reddish brown, finely hairy; first leaves opposite and simple.

Other botanical information

Trichoscypha comprises about 30 species and is nearly confined to West and Central Africa. Cameroon and Gabon are richest, with 16 and 13 species, respectively.

Trichoscypha lucens

Trichoscypha lucens Oliv. (synonyms: Trichoscypha chevalieri Aubrév. & Pellegr., Trichoscypha ealaensis Van der Veken, Trichoscypha oba Aubrév. & Pellegr., Trichoscypha ulugurensis Mildbr., Trichoscypha yapoensis Aubrév. & Pellegr.) is a variable shrub or small tree up to 15(–25) m tall widespread in West and Central Africa and the only Trichoscypha species extending to East and southern Africa. Its wood is sometimes used for similar purposes as that of Trichoscypha arborea. It is strong, tough, flexible and durable, and additionally used for bows, arrows and fetish masks. The fruit is edible.

Trichoscypha bijuga

Trichoscypha bijuga Engl. (synonym: Trichoscypha beguei Aubrév. & Pellegr.) is a shrub to small tree of the forest understorey occurring from Liberia to western DR Congo and northern Angola. The wood is probably used for similar purposes as that of Trichoscypha arborea.

Trichoscypha cavalliensis

Trichoscypha cavalliensis Aubrév. & Pellegr. is an understory tree up to 20 m tall with a straight bole up to 20 cm in diameter occurring in Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. Its durable wood is used for poles in house building. Trichoscypha cavalliensis is classified as vulnerable in the IUCN Red list.

Anatomy

Wood-anatomical description (IAWA hardwood codes):

• Growth rings: 2: growth ring boundaries indistinct or absent.
• Vessels: 5: wood diffuse-porous; 13: simple perforation plates; 22: intervessel pits alternate; 23: shape of alternate pits polygonal; 25: intervessel pits small (4–7 μm); 26: intervessel pits medium (7–10 μm); 31: vessel-ray pits with much reduced borders to apparently simple: pits rounded or angular; 32: vessel-ray pits with much reduced borders to apparently simple: pits horizontal (scalariform, gash-like) to vertical (palisade); 42: mean tangential diameter of vessel lumina 100–200 μm; 47: 5–20 vessels per square millimetre; 56: tyloses common.
• Tracheids and fibres: 61: fibres with simple to minutely bordered pits; 65: septate fibres present; 69: fibres thin- to thick-walled.
• Axial parenchyma: 78: axial parenchyma scanty paratracheal; (79: axial parenchyma vasicentric); (84: axial parenchyma unilateral paratracheal); 92: four (3–4) cells per parenchyma strand; 93: eight (5–8) cells per parenchyma strand.
• Rays: 97: ray width 1–3 cells; 106: body ray cells procumbent with one row of upright and/or square marginal cells; 107: body ray cells procumbent with mostly 2–4 rows of upright and/or square marginal cells; (108: body ray cells procumbent with over 4 rows of upright and/or square marginal cells); 115: 4–12 rays per mm.
• Secretory elements and cambial variants: 130: radial canals.
• Mineral inclusions: 136: prismatic crystals present; 137: prismatic crystals in upright and/or square ray cells; 138: prismatic crystals in procumbent ray cells; (140: prismatic crystals in chambered upright and/or square ray cells).

(N.P. Mollel, P.E. Gasson & E.A. Wheeler)

Growth and development

Seedlings develop a dark red taproot with slender lateral roots. The first 5–10 leaves of seedlings are simple; the first compound leaves develop 6–12 months after germination. The tree is evergreen, but flushes of new dark red leaves appear at the end of the rainy season. Flowering trees have been recorded from May to November, and fruits ripen about 4 months later. They are eaten by monkeys, which may serve as seed dispersers.

Ecology

Trichoscypha arborea occurs mostly in evergreen forest, sometimes in moist semi-deciduous forest, often along watercourses and in coastal formations. It is found up to 300 m altitude and prefers moist but free draining localities.

Propagation and planting

There are 700–800 seeds per kg. Seeds start germinating 3–8 weeks after sowing, but some seeds still germinate after 3 years. The germination rate is usually high, 80–90%.

Genetic resources

Trichoscypha arborea has a quite large area of distribution and is locally common. There are no indications of any commercial exploitation or threats and it seems therefore not liable to genetic erosion.

Prospects

Trichoscypha arborea is a multipurpose tree with limited prospects as a commercial timber species because of its relatively small bole size. However, it has a high value for its fruits and the medicinal use of the bark resin. Research on domestication is recommended because it may have prospects as fruit tree in agroforestry systems.

Major references

• Breteler, F.J., 2001. The genus Trichoscypha (Anacardiaceae) in Upper Guinea: A synoptic revision. Adansonia, sér. 3, 23(2): 247–264.

• Breteler, F.J., 2004. The genus Trichoscypha (Anacardiaceae) in Lower Guinea and Congolia: A synoptic revision. Adansonia, sér. 3, 26(1): 97–127.

• de Koning, J., 1983. La forêt de Banco. Part 2: La Flore. Mededelingen Landbouwhogeschool Wageningen 83–1. Wageningen, Netherlands. 921 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.

• 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.

• Sallenave, P., 1955. Propriétés physiques et mécaniques des bois tropicaux de l’Union française. Centre Technique Forestier Tropical, Nogent sur Marne, France. 129 pp.

• Savill, P.S. & Fox, J.E.D., 1967. Trees of Sierra Leone. Forest Department, Freetown, Sierra Leone. 316 pp.

• Young, D.A., 1976. Flavonoid chemistry and the phylogenetic relationships of Julianiaceae. Systematic Botany 1(2): 149–162.

Other references

• Aubréville, A., 1959. La flore forestière de la Côte d’Ivoire. Deuxième édition révisée. Tome deuxième. Publication No 15. Centre Technique Forestier Tropical, Nogent-sur-Marne, France. 341 pp.

• Burkill, H.M., 1985. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 1, Families A–D. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 960 pp.

• Cooper, G.P. & Record, S.J., 1931. The evergreen forests of Liberia. School of Forestry, Yale University, Bulletin 31, New Haven, United States. 153 pp.

• de la Mensbruge, G., 1966. La germination et les plantules des essences arborées de la forêt dense humide de la Côte d’Ivoire. Centre Technique Forestier Tropical, Nogent-sur-Marne, France. 389 pp.

• Faure, J.J. & Louppe, D., 2006. Des fruitiers africains méconnus: les Trichoscypha. Le Flamboyant 61: 11–14.

• 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.

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

• Keay, R.W.J., 1989. Trees of Nigeria. A revised version of Nigerian trees (1960, 1964) by Keay, R.W.J., Onochie, C.F.A. & Stanfield, D.P. Clarendon Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. 476 pp.

• Kokwaro, J.O., 1986. Anacardiaceae. In: Polhill, R.M. (Editor), 1986. Flora of Tropical East Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands. 59 pp.

• Normand, D., 1955. Atlas des bois de la Côte d’Ivoire. Tome 2. Centre Technique Forestier Tropical, Nogent-sur-Marne, France. 132 pp.

• Widodo, S.H., 2001. Crescentia L. In: van Valkenburg, J.L.C.H. & Bunyapraphatsara, N. (Editors). Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands. pp. 191–194.

• Vivien, J. & Faure, J.J., 1996. Fruitiers sauvages d’Afrique: espèces du Cameroun. Ministère Français de la Coopération, Paris, France & CTA, Wageningen, Netherlands. 416 pp.

Sources of illustration

• Aubréville, A., 1959. La flore forestière de la Côte d’Ivoire. Deuxième édition révisée. Tome deuxième. Publication No 15. Centre Technique Forestier Tropical, Nogent-sur-Marne, France. 341 pp.

• Breteler, F.J., 2001. The genus Trichoscypha (Anacardiaceae) in Upper Guinea: A synoptic revision. Adansonia, sér. 3, 23(2): 247–264.

• 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.

Author(s)

• E.A. Obeng, Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG), University P.O. Box 63, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana

Correct citation of this article

Obeng, E.A., 2010. Trichoscypha arborea (A.Chev.) A.Chev. In: 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.