Lepidotrichilia volkensii (Bekele-Tesemma, 2007)

← Lawsonia inermis

Bekele-Tesemma, Useful trees and shrubs for Ethiopia, 2007 Lepidotrichilia volkensii (Bekele-Tesemma, 2007)

Leucaena leucocephala →

Lepidotrichilia volkensii Meliaceae Indigenous

Common names

• Agnuakgna: Kijang

Ecology

Found in the under-storey vegetation of moist forests in Ilubabor, Keffa, Sidamo, Harrarghe, Shoa and Wolega regions, 1050—2,800 m.

Use

Firewood, timber (local construction), food (fruit).

Description

Tree usually up to 9 m in height, sometimes shrub.

• LEAVES: in odd number pinnate, leaflets 3-4 pairs, oblanceolate to elliptic, up to 15 in length and 6 cm in width (usually smaller), acute at the apex, markedly asymmetric at the base; underside slightly hairy.
• FLOWER: bisexual, inflorescence up to 10 cm long; calyx 0.2 cm long; petals 5, much longer than the calyx in bud, white and 0.3 to 0.4 cm long, densely covered with short hairs externally; filaments 0.3– 0.4 cm long, densely covered with short hairs at base outside, sparsely long hairs in upper half inside.
• FRUIT: drupe, up to 1.5 cm in length and 1 cm in width, encrusted with star-shaped scales; seeds arising from axils.

Propagation

Seedlings, wildings.

Seed

• Treatment: No need.
• Storage: Store for short period of time.

Remarks

Young and elderly people eat the fruit raw. The bark is used for fermentation.