Alantsilodendron villosum (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Timber
Conservation status

Alantsilodendron villosum (R.Vig.) Villiers

Protologue: Bull. Mus. natl. Hist. nat., sect. B, Adansonia 16: 70 (1994).

Family: Mimosaceae (Leguminosae - Mimosoideae)

Synonyms

• Dichrostachys villosa R.Vig. (1949).

Origin and geographic distribution

Alantsilodendron villosum is endemic to northern Madagascar.

Uses

The stems are used for posts in house construction.

Description

• Small tree; young branches glabrous, with lenticels.
• Leaves alternate but clustered at the apex of short lateral shoots, bipinnately compound with 13–40 pairs of pinnae, these opposite; stipules densely crowded along short shoots, narrowly ovate, 7–12 mm long; petiole 8–13 mm long, rachis 3.5–8 cm long, grooved, woolly hairy and with glands between the pinnae; leaflets 40–45 pairs per pinna, opposite, sessile, elliptical to oblong, up to 1.5 mm × 0.5 mm, truncate to rounded and asymmetrical at base and obtuse at apex, glabrous.
• Inflorescence an axillary head, produced solitary or in clusters on short shoots; peduncle 1.5–2.5 cm long, woolly hairy.
• Flowers bisexual, regular, 5-merous, sessile, white; calyx saucer-shaped, c. 1.5 mm long, woolly hairy in lower part, with short lobes; petals connate into a tube 1.5–2 mm long, lobes c. 1 mm long, acute; stamens 10, free, 4.5–6.5 mm long, anthers with a gland at apex; ovary superior, sessile, ellipsoid, woolly hairy, style c. 1.5 mm long.
• Fruit a linear-oblong pod 6–8.5 cm × 0.5–1 cm, with thickened and sharply ridged margins, glabrous to shortly hairy, red-brown, dehiscent with 2 woody valves.

Other botanical information

Alantsilodendron comprises 9 species, most of them restricted to southern Madagascar. It is closely related to Dichrostachys and Gagnebina. Alantsilodendron villosum flowers when new leaves develop.

Ecology

Alantsilodendron villosum occurs in dry deciduous woodland on sandy soils.

Genetic resources

Alantsilodendron villosum has a limited distribution and may become easily endangered by habitat destruction.

Prospects

Alantsilodendron villosum will remain of minor importance because of its small size and limited distribution.

Major references

• du Puy, D.J., Labat, J.N., Rabevohitra, R., Villiers, J.-F., Bosser, J. & Moat, J., 2002. The Leguminosae of Madagascar. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 750 pp.

Other references

• Villiers, J.-F., 1994. Alantsilodendron Villiers, genre nouveau de Leguminosae-Mimosoideae de Madagascar. Bulletin du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 4e série, 16, section B, Adansonia (1): 65–70.

Author(s)

• R.H.M.J. Lemmens, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Lemmens, R.H.M.J., 2006. Alantsilodendron villosum (R.Vig.) Villiers. 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 31 March 2025.

• See the Prota4U database.