Bridelia micrantha
An evergreen or deciduous, often much-branched, small tree up to 20 m high with a dense spreading crown and ± flattened or pendent branches arising from c. 2 m above ground. Trunk and branches with scattered blunt thorns. Bark smooth and pale grey or pinkish-brown on branches, rough and dark grey or brown at base of trunk. Wood hard, white.Twigs dark grey or brown, lenticellate. Young shoots and petioles evenly to sparingly pubescent or subglabrous. Petioles 5–13 mm long. Stipules 4–7 mm long, linear-lanceolate, acute, puberulous or pubescent. Leaf blades 3–28 × 1.5–12 cm, elliptic to elliptic-oblong, shortly obtusely acuminate, rounded to cuneate at the base, subentire or very shallowly crenate, thinly coriaceous, sparingly pubescent to subglabrous along the midrib and main nerves above and beneath and otherwise ± glabrous above and minutely sparingly appressed-puberulous beneath, carmine-orange in young flush, dark or bright green and shiny above and paler below, with the nerves often pale yellow when mature, often drying greenish-grey above and light brown beneath; lateral nerves in 5–20 pairs, craspedodromous, slightly prominent above and beneath or somewhat more so beneath, tertiary nerves parallel or subparallel, not prominent. Male flowers: pedicels 1 mm long, sparingly appressed-puberulous; sepals 2 × 1 mm, triangular-ovate, acute, appressed-puberulous without, glabrous within, greenish; petals 0.5 × 0.5 mm, obtriangular, apically tridentate, greenish-white; disk 2 mm in diameter, shallowly 5-lobed, ± flat, fleshy, glabrous; staminal column 1 mm high; filaments 0.5 mm long, narrowing apically; anthers 0.75 mm long, yellow; pistillode 0.5 mm tall, ± conical, shallowly lobed at the apex. Female flowers faintly scented, subsessile or shortly stoutly pedicellate; sepals triangular, pale grey-green, otherwise ± as in the male; petals 1 × 0.5 mm, elliptic, subentire; outer disk 1.5 mm in diameter, pentagonal; inner disk 3-lobed, the lobes erose at the apex, closely enfolding the ovary, reddish-brown; ovary c. 0.75 × 0.75 mm, ovoid-subglobose, 2–3-celled; styles 2–3, c. 0.75 mm long, ± free, bifid, stigmas smooth.Fruit 6–8 × 4–5 mm when dried, slightly larger when fresh, ellipsoid or occasionally subglobose, 1-locular by abortion, green at first, black when ripe. Seeds 5 × 3 mm, smooth, slightly shiny, brown.
Source: http://plants.jstor.org/flora/fz6804.
Common
Small- to medium-sized tree, to about 30 cm dbh, 20 m tall. Monoecious, fruits small, dehiscent.
Forest from 300 - 1700 m altitude
In riverine and gully forests and in evergreen rain and mist forest patches, in miombo and high rainfall woodlands and escarpment woodlands, also in seasonally flooded grassland, dambos, riverine vegetation, swamp forest and mangrove swamp margins, sometimes on granite outcrops.
Widespread throughout tropical Africa, from Senegal eastwards to central Ethiopia and south to Angola and South Africa (Eastern Cape Province).
The wood when boiled to a pulp has medicial use in Sierra Leone under the vernacular name ejira, and in Nigeria to treat open sores, or to foment them.Leaves, bark and roots are purgative and are widely so used. The bark, after the removal of the corky outer layer is administered in various preparations in Senegal for stomach and intestinal complaints, and for conditions in which the stomach is considered the cause - sterility, amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, beriberi, oedemas, etc, and, in combination with other drug-plants for shock when rapid and spectacular success has been recorded. Activity of the bark is said to be due to the presence of tannins and saponosides. Yoruba medicine-men use the bark for bringing to full term ‘prolonged pregnancy’, said to run sometimes up to three years, doubtless false pregnancy or obesity. The root may also be given for stomach-troubles as a laxative by eating food cooked in water in which the root has been boiled. Similar uses are recorded in The Gambia. Root-sap instilled into the anus is an Ubangi treatment for oxyuris worm. Yoruba medicine-men recognise the plant as vermifugal. In Ghana a leaf-decoction is given for guinea-worm.The fresh bark is slightly aromatic and is used in Gabon for stomach-aches, and in Ivory Coast as a powerful purge in cases of obstinate constipation and poisoning, and, in curious contrast, to prevent abortion. Powdered bark is used in decoctions with palm-oil in Sierra Leone as a cough-medicine, and a hot decoction of bark and leaves may be held in the mouth for sores and to relieve sore gums, toothache and cough. The bark makes an Yoruba mouth-wash. In Malawi, a bark-decoction is applied to treat scabies.In the inner bark and outer sap-wood there is a sticky substance which is adhesive. The inner bark with that of the baobab (Adansonia digitata, Bombacaceae) produces a glue used for boots and shoes in The Gambia. In northern Sierra Leone the stripped stems are rubbed onto newly-made rattan grain winnows, and in like manner, also in Sierra Leone, the sticky substance from the inner bark is applied to fresh wounds to form an effective binding of the tissues. The Ijo of S Nigeria use bark boiled in water to heal the circumcision wound of both girls and boys. In E Africa the bark is pounded to a paste which is used to stop cracks in doors, baskets, etc., while such is used in The Gambia to caulk canoes.The aromatic bark is used in The Democratic Republic of Congo to flavour local tobacco (B. micrantha).The young foliage is taken as fodder in Zanzibar though the older leaves are laxative. In Senegal, the Tenda use the leaves as a circumcision dressing, and the leaves are stuffed into cushions on which the new initiates sit to have their wound washed. Also in Senegal, the leaves and other parts of the plant are held to be enteralgic, while in Sierra Leone the young leaves are eaten for headache. In eastern and southern Africa the root finds use as an analgesic. The plant enters into a number of West African treatments for conjunctivitis, and in S Africa leaf-sap is used for sore eyes. Bark, leaves and roots are pounded in Nigeria for external use on bruises, boils, ulcers, dislocations and burns. The roots chewed with maleguetta pepper are held by the Ijo to be a cure for hernia.The twigs and young leaves furnish a black dye used in Guinea and Ghana to blacken pottery. The pounded bark of B. micrantha is used by the Tenda people of Senegal to redden pottery and baskets. In The Democratic Republic of Congo the bark of B. micrantha gives a black dye and of B. stenocarpa a red dye for pottery, and in E Africa the former gives a brownish dye.The fruits have a small amount of pulp which is edible. They yield a black dye.In common with other Bridelia spp., these trees are usually infested in Sierra Leone with red ants which ‘milk’ aphids living on the leaves and green shoots causing them to drip water (? honey dew) all through the dry season. The trees are also the food plant of African silk-worms, Anaphe spp., recorded in The Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda and The Democratic Republic of Congo. Farming these silk-worms has been attempted in various parts of tropical Africa but without apparent success. The silk yarn is brownish in colour and can be woven mixed with cotton. The Yoruba name for the silk is sãnyán or òwú sãnyán (òwú: cotton; sãnyán: raw silk, coarse woven silk, silk cloth. Propagation of the food-plant is relatively simple from seed or cuttings, and people have been encouraged to establish the plant in hedges or as a boundary shrub, but since the silk-worm pupae are an item of diet the raw material has become scarce in the natural state. With considerable knowledge now gained on farming the commercial silk-worm, it may be of interest to look again at the possibility of cultivating the indigenous species. The plant has magical attributes in Yorubaland as a protection against one’s enemies, and mistletoe found growing on B. micrantha if placed in a new field is held by the Tenda people of Senegal/Guinea to have protective powers.