Changes

*African ebony, West African ebony, Benin ebony (En). *Ebène d’Afrique, ebène noir, ebénier véritable du Gabon (Fr).

*Dioecious medium-sized tree up to 25 m tall; bole cylindrical or fluted, branchless for up to 15 m, up to 120 cm in diameter, without buttresses; bark surface with fine longitudinal fissures, exfoliating in rather thick scales, blackish grey to black, inner bark black and brittle in outer layer, pale salmon pink with creamy streaks in inner layer; branches reddish grey-brown, with longitudinal cracks; young twigs glabrous. *Leaves alternate, simple and entire; stipules absent; petiole up to 1.5 cm long, grooved above, nearly glabrous; blade lanceolate-elliptical to oblong-elliptical, 10–21 cm × 4–10 cm, cuneate to rounded and slightly asymmetrical at base, abruptly acuminate at apex, thin-leathery, nearly glabrous, glossy dark green above, paler below, pinnately veined with 5–8 pairs of lateral veins, finest veins perpendicular to lateral veins. *Inflorescence an axillary fascicle, often on older branches, 3–6-flowered for male inflorescence, 1–2-flowered for female one. *Flowers unisexual, regular, nearly sessile; calyx fleshy, up to 10 mm long, pinkish red, with tube slightly longer than the (4–)5 lobes; corolla 2.5–3 cm long, fleshy, short-hairy, pinkish white, with ellipsoid tube and 4–6 short lobes; male flowers with numerous stamens up to 1.5 cm long, with very short filaments, ovary rudimentary; female flowers with rudimentary stamens, ovary superior, globose, c. 5 mm in diameter, 8–10-celled, styles 4–5. *Fruit an ellipsoid to obovoid berry, up to 10 cm × 6.5 cm, sparsely hairy to glabrous, yellowish when ripe, enclosed at base by enlarged calyx up to 4 cm in diameter, up to 10-seeded. *Seeds oblong, up to 5 cm × 2 cm × 1.5 cm, glossy brown to black.

{{right|(E.E. Mwakalukwa, P.E. Gasson & E.A. Wheeler)}}

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

Obeng, E.A., 2010. '''Diospyros crassiflora''' Hiern. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. 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. <http://www.prota4u.org/search.asp>.