Entada africana Guill. & Perrott.

Leguminosae

Common names

Ndende, twatsa

Synonyms

• Entada sudanica Schweinf.
• Entada ubanguiensis De Wild.
• Entadopsis sudanica (Schweinf.) Gilbert & Boutique

Description

Small, low branching tree, up to 7-12 m, with a narrow open crown. Bark fibrous and creviced grey-brown, transversally striped, slash red with white streaks, twigs grey-brown, pubescent. Leaves large bipinnate 15-45 cm long, with 2-9 pairs of pinnae with 8-24 pairs of linear-oblong leaflets 0.9-4.5 x 0.3-1.5 cm. Leaves glabrous. Flowers cream, in racemes 5-10 cm long. Pods, with an undulate margin, 10-30 x 2-5 cm, dark +/- pubescent, 12-15 seeds per pod, seeds two-winged, ca 4 000 per kg.

Distribution

South Sahel and Sudanian ecozone savannas in disturbed places, fairly common and gregarious. Throughout the Sahel to East and South Africa.

Crop management

Sensitive to bush fires.

Products & uses

Leaves are good fodder, wood soft and easy to work, Bast fibers used for bands, ropes, storage bins. Many medicinal and fetish uses : leaves; tonic tea, wound healing, contains rotenone and tannins, bark abortive, roots have antidotal effects against various toxic agents and fish poison (ichtyotoxic).

References

Aubréville 1950 ; Berhaut 1975 ; Hutchinson & al. 1958 ; Dalziel 1955 ; Giffard 1974a ; Kerharao & Adam 1974 ; Baumer 1975 ; Weber et al. 1977 ; Geerling 1982/88 ; Von Maydell 1983/86 ; Burkill 1995.