Pterocarpus lucens Lepr. ex Guill. & Perrott.

Synonyms

• Pterocarpus abyssinica Hochst.
• Pterocarpus simpliciflorus Baker

Local vernacular names:

"cami"in Mali and Niger and "tebelahi" in Burkina Faso (Sandrine Petit)

Thornless tall shrub of 3-4 m or small tree to 12 m, exceptionally 15 m, with a straight smooth stem, spreading canopy and a slender habit. Leaves are 10-28 cm long, usually composite, rarely simple. Colour light green and shining on the upper side and dull yellowish-grey underneath. Stipules are linear, 2-3 mm long, early deciduous. One to five leaflets 4-10 cm long x 2.8-4.8 cm wide, sub-opposite ; very variable in shape : broadly lanceolate, ovate or elliptic, narrow, acuminate or emarginate, sometimes rounded or obtuse at the tip. There are 12-18 nerves conspicuous on each side of the blade., 2 nd order nerves are reticulate. Inflorescence are yellow in loose racemes located at the axils of the leaves 6-30 cm long. Flowers are rather small (10-15 mm long), with small and fugacious bracts, bracteoles are minute and very short lived.. Calyx is lobate and 4-6 mm long hairy in the inner part of the mouth of the funnel, glabrous elsewhere, and often red-veined. Corolla 10-15 mm yellow , fragrant. Standard widely ovate, wings spreading, wrapping the keel, as long as the standard. Fruit indehiscent, obovate 4.5-6.5 cm long x 2-3 cm wide, stipulate, glabrous, with one single seed. There are 5,000 seeds per kg. The bark is smooth and finely scaly, with a red-purplish slash, exusing a red gum. Pods persistent on the tree after maturity. Wood yellowish-white and fairly hard. The tree remains leafless for most of the dry season, foliation takes place in April-May, before the onset of the rains (precession of foliation).

Gregarious species often in quasi monospecific stands.

Found in areas with MAR > 400 mm, occasionally less in vegetation arcs (tiger-bush) where run-in from adjacent bare stripes compensates for the lower rainfall.

P. lucens is often found on deep, medium to fine textured soils, as well as on iron hardpans and laterites and talus screes, but then the size is reduced.

P. lucens is a species of the South Sahelian and North Sudanian ecozones. Found from Ethiopia to Senegal.

The wood is medium hard, easy to work, used in carpentry, joinery, and furniture making. The bark is astringent and used for tanning and as a medicine against dysentery. The foliage constitutes perhaps the best browse available in the Sahel, harvested from lopped trees and sold in markets to feed pet animals. It is possible to forward the time of foliation, and to defer the time of leaf shedding by lopping management (Cissé, 1980 a,b). Production in Niono, Mali, under 500 mm MAR on deep loamy soil was 3500 kg of foliage DM / ha / yr for a (high) density of monospecific population of 1600 stems per ha.

Feed value is high with 20-25 % CP in leaves. Digestibility of DM is 50-55 %, content of P = 0.5 % , Ca = 1.5 %, pods are not consumed. Shed leaves are picked up by from the ground by stock; they keep a good part of their feed value, with up to 12-15 % CP.

• Fodder trees and shrubs in range and farming systems in dry tropical Africa : article
• Mapping of ecological land units for lifestock development: article
• Crop mixtures in traditional systems: article

Andrews 1952; Aubréville 1950; Baumer 1975; Baumer 1983; Berhaut 1976; Burkill 1995; Cissé 1980a; Cissé 1980b; Cissé et al. 1993; Dicko-Touré 1980a; Dicko-Touré 1980b; Geerling 1982/88; Giffard 1974a; Hiernaux 1980; Hutchinson et al. 1958; Kerharo & Adam 1974; Le Houérou 1980a; Le Houérou 1980c; Le Houérou 1980d; Le Houérou 1989a; Touzeau 1973; Von Maydell 1983/86