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:Family: Papilionaceae (Leguminosae - Papilionoideae, Fabaceae)
== Vernacular names ==
The heartwood is purplish brown and contains red gum; the sapwood is yellowish white and up to 2 cm wide. The grain is straight or slightly wavy, texture fine and even. The wood has a peppery scent. It is heavy, with a density of 1280 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content, and hard. Shrinkage rates from green to 12% moisture content are 1.5% radial and 2.4% tangential. Green timber has a low moisture content, and air-drying is rapid with little degradation. The wood is difficult to work with machine tools, rapidly blunting saw teeth and cutters. It finishes and polishes very well. It is resilient with good weathering properties. The durability is high, the wood being only rarely attacked by marine borers and termites. The sapwood is not susceptible to ''Lyctus'' borer attack. The heartwood is impermeable to preservatives.
== Botany Description ==
Medium-sized tree up to 27 m tall; bole up to 15 m long, with a diameter up to 0.9 m, irregular in form with deep fluting at the base; outer bark grey-brown; crown rounded, much-branched; twigs pendulous, rusty brown hairy but glabrescent. Leaves alternate, simple and entire; stipules early caducous; petiole 1–3 cm long, thickened at base and top; blade broadly ovate to elliptical, 4–14 cm × 1.5–7 cm, cuneate to shallowly cordate at base, obtuse to acuminate at apex, leathery, glabrous, pinnately veined with 5–8 pairs of lateral veins. Inflorescence an axillary raceme 3.5–7.5 cm long, often grouped into panicle-like leafy inflorescences at the ends of branches. Flowers bisexual, papilionaceous; pedicel 6.5–18 mm long, hairy; calyx 9–15 mm long, 2-lobed, sparsely brown hairy; corolla with almost orbicular standard up to 20(–25) mm in diameter, white with yellow blotch at base, wings and keel white with a pocket near the base; stamens 10, free, up to 16 mm long; ovary superior, glabrous, style incurved. Fruit an ellipsoid-oblong pod 7.5–16.5 cm × 2.5–5 cm, flattened, woody, pale brown, dehiscing with 2 valves, 1–2-seeded. Seeds lens-shaped, 1.5–2.5 cm × 1–2 cm, black or dark brown.
== Other botanical information ==
''Baphia'' comprises about 45 species and is restricted to Africa, including Madagascar where 2 species are found. The distribution area of ''Baphia kirkii'' is disjunct, the two sub-areas separated by about 1500 km. Plants from Tanzania are considered to belong to subsp. ''kirkii'', those from Mozambique to subsp. ''ovata'' (Sim) Soladoye (synonym: ''Baphia ovata'' Sim), differing in slightly smaller flowers and more hairy calyx.
The wood of some other ''Baphia'' species is used for similar purposes as that of ''Baphia kirkii'', but most species are of too small size to be important. The best known timber species is ''Baphia nitida'' Lodd. (camwood), but the use of the red dye from its wood is more important. ''Baphia capparidifolia'' Baker belongs to the same section as ''Baphia kirkii''. This widespread species, occurring from Guinea to western Tanzania and Zambia and in Madagascar, is usually a climbing or scrambling shrub of which the wood is nevertheless used for walking sticks and as supports for fishing nets. Its leaves are used to treat fever and are given to pregnant women when the foetus develops too slowly. The wood of ''Baphia laurifolia'' Baill., a shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall occurring from eastern Nigeria to central DR Congo, is used in Gabon for kitchen implements.
=== ''Baphia capparidifolia'' ===
''[[Baphia capparidifolia]]'' Baker belongs to the same section as ''Baphia kirkii''. This widespread species, occurring from Guinea to western Tanzania and Zambia and in Madagascar, is usually a climbing or scrambling shrub of which the wood is nevertheless used for walking sticks and as supports for fishing nets. Its leaves are used to treat fever and are given to pregnant women when the foetus develops too slowly.
=== ''Baphia laurifolia'' ===
The wood of ''[[Baphia laurifolia]]'' Baill., a shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall occurring from eastern Nigeria to central DR Congo, is used in Gabon for kitchen implements.
== Ecology ==
''Baphia kirkii'' occurs in coastal forest, thickets and savanna up to 400(–900) m altitude.
== Genetic resources ==
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[[Category:PROTA prov]][[Category:Timbers (PROTA)]]