Changes

*''Maclura excelsa'' (Welw.) Bureau (1873), *''Chlorophora excelsa'' (Welw.) Benth. (1880).

*Iroko, rock elm, African teak, African oak (En). *Iroko, chêne d’Afrique, teck d’Afrique, teck kambala (Fr). *Câmbala, amoreira, moreira, teca africana, tumbiro, magundo (Po). *Mvule (Sw).

*Large, dioecious tree up to 50 m tall; bole straight, cylindrical, branchless for up to 25(–30) m, up to 2.5(–3) m in diameter, buttresses absent or small; surface roots often long and prominent, red-brown with yellow lenticels; outer bark grey to dark brown or black, lenticelled, becoming scaly, inner bark thick, fibrous, cream-coloured speckled with orange-brown spots, exuding a white or yellowish latex; crown spreading; branches obliquely ascending. *Leaves distichously alternate, simple; stipules free, slightly clasping the stem, up to 5 cm long, caducous; petiole 1–6 cm long; blade oblong to elliptical, 6–20(–33) cm × 3.5–10(–15) cm, base cordate to obtuse, often very unequal, apex acuminate, margin almost entire to wavy but toothed in juvenile specimens, papery to leathery, above glabrous or slightly hairy on the main veins, below densely short-hairy between the finest veins, pinnately veined with 10–22 pairs of lateral veins. *Inflorescence a catkin, usually solitary in leaf axils or on leafless nodes at the base of twigs, white hairy, flowers numerous in longitudinal rows alternating with rows of bracts; male inflorescence 8–20(–32) cm × 0.5–1 cm, hanging, peduncle 0.5–2.5 cm long; female inflorescence 2–4 cm × 0.5–2 cm, peduncle 0.5–2 cm long. *Flowers unisexual, 4-merous, sessile; male flowers c. 1.5 mm long, white, tepals 4, basally fused, stamens 4 and inflexed in bud, rudimentary pistil present; female flowers 2–3 mm long, with 4 basally fused tepals, greenish, ovary superior, c. 1 mm long, 1-celled, stigmas 2, one 3–7 mm long, the other up to 1 mm long. *Fruit an ellipsoid, compressed achene 2.5–3 mm long, arranged in infructescences up to 5 cm × 1.5 cm. *Seed c. 2 mm long. *Seedling with epigeal germination.

*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; 27: intervessel pits large (<font size="1">≥</font> 10 μm); (30: vessel-ray pits with distinct borders; similar to intervessel pits in size and shape throughout the ray cell); 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); 43: mean tangential diameter of vessel lumina <font size="1">≥</font> 200 μm; 46: <font size="1">≤</font> 5 vessels per square millimetre; (47: 5–20 vessels per square millimetre); 56: tyloses common. *Tracheids and fibres: 61: fibres with simple to minutely bordered pits; 66: non-septate fibres present; 69: fibres thin- to thick-walled. *Axial parenchyma: 80: axial parenchyma aliform; (81: axial parenchyma lozenge-aliform); (82: axial parenchyma winged-aliform); 83: axial parenchyma confluent; (84: axial parenchyma unilateral paratracheal); (85: axial parenchyma bands more than three cells wide); (86: axial parenchyma in narrow bands or lines up to three cells wide); 91: two cells per parenchyma strand; 92: four (3–4) cells per parenchyma strand. *Rays: 98: larger rays commonly 4- to 10-seriate; 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); 115: 4–12 rays per mm. *Secretory elements and cambial variants: 132: laticifers or tanniferous tubes. *Mineral inclusions: 136: prismatic crystals present; 137: prismatic crystals in upright and/or square ray cells; 141: prismatic crystals in non-chambered axial parenchyma cells; (154: more than one crystal of about the same size per cell or chamber); (155: two distinct sizes of crystals per cell or chamber).

{{right|(D. Louppe, P. Détienne & E.A. Wheeler)}}

* UNEP-WCMC, 2006. Contribution to an evaluation of tree species using the new CITES Listing Criteria. UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, United Kingdom. [Internet]. http://www.unep-wcmc.org/ species/tree_study/ contents1_en.htm. October 2006.

* D.A. Ofori , Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG), University P.O. Box 63, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana

Ofori, D.A., 2007. '''Milicia excelsa''' (Welw.) C.C.Berg. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. In: Louppe, D., Oteng-Amoako, A.A. & Brink, M. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. <http://www.prota4u.org/search.asp>. Accessed {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}.