Musanga cecropioides
Evergreen straight stemmed tree up to 18 m tall, crown umbrella-like, branchlets stout and pithy producing no latex; stilt roots present, thin and unbranched when young, low and massive when older; bark smooth and grey, slash pinkish or often greenish, thin, very soft, pulpy-granular, brownish on exposure, sometimes spiny. Leaf bud enclosed in large stipular sheaths; leaves digitately divided into 12-15 spreading entire, narrow, shortly acuminate segments, up to 45 cm long, 10 cm broad, covered with greyish indumentum beneath; lateral nerves numerous, very conspicuous beneath; stipules large, connate, 15-20 cm long, densely pubescent. Male trees sympodial in growth; inflorescence terminal, paniculate, leaf opposed, flowers with joined sepals round a single stamen and accompanied by 2 glands. Male flowers in numerous small round heads about 4 mm in diameter, female inflorescence short and club-like, about 2 cm long on a peduncle up to 12 cm long, each flower with a fused calyx, a pistil with a basal ovule and a single style and a pair of glands which secrete substances attractive to ants. Fruit yellowish green, becoming brownish, succulent, up to 8 cm, containing numerous achenes.
Source: http://www.worldagroforestry.org
Least concern
Animal-dispersed, including elephants.
Pioneer, fast growing and short-lived species, constitutes the first stages of succession leading to the rebuilding of rain forest.
Abundant in forest clearings, forest gaps, river banks, roadsides
Widespread in Africa, from Liberia to Ethiopia, extending south to Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo
Forest gaps
The fruits are eaten by elephants and many other animals. The wood is used as firewood, in making drums, construction of canoes and utensils. The bark is used in the treatment of several diseases including chest pain, coughs and wounds.
Often used as shade trees in coffee plantations. Improves the quality of soil as nitrogen fixing species.