272 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



The timber was reported as satinwood and worth 3d. to 

 Is. per superficial foot in the Liverpool market in 1906, and 

 that moderate quantities (of fair length and squares) would be 

 taken. 

 Pterocarpus esculentus (Schum. and Thon.). Edible-fruited Padouk. 

 Gbingbindo (Yoruba) ; Akpanagya, Uruhe (Benin) ; Nja (Efik). 



It is one of the most common waterside trees of all the 

 Southern Provinces of Nigeria ; some of the rivers on the 

 banks of which it is found are the Ovia, Ogun and Cross River, 

 Belonging to the mixed deciduous forest zone, it is in the middle 

 reaches of these rivers where it is most prevalent. 



A typical feature of this small tree is the bright, yellow- 

 coloured flower, which quite brightens up the banks of the 

 rivers at the end of February or March. Another most peculiar 

 feature is the odd, somewhat kidney-shaped fruit with its 

 rough surface corrugations, containing inside a hardish nut 

 about 1 inch in diameter. Either the nuts or the fruit are 

 often seen floating down the rivers, especially where they are 

 tidal. The leaves are more typical of the Pterocarps, other- 

 wise the fruit is most unlike either those of the genus or even 

 of the family. The bole of the tree is short, smooth and almost 

 silver-grey in colour, though it is often discoloured with the 

 mud from the perennial floods of the river. It is usually seen 

 with more than one stem. 



The timber is white and not over-hard. It is not very 

 durable. 



The tree is not very fast-growing, but is an evergreen, with 

 a short period in which nearly all the leaves fall. It serves 

 a most useful purpose in holding the banks of the streams 

 wherever it is found, and it is noticeable that its roots appear 

 to extend a long way back and that it is one of the last trees to 

 be washed out by floods. It sprouts fairly well from the stump 

 when cut, unless it is almost at once submerged by the floods, 

 which points to the fact that it should be cut only at the begin- 

 ning or towards the end of the dry season. Natural regenera- 

 tion appears to be fair, but no plantations have been tried 

 with this tree. 



The nuts have not been examined to see what they contain, 

 though they are of nutritive value. 



For export it does not yield large timber, and for local use 

 it is rather small, but for local huts it might occasionally be 

 used where other timber is scarce, as in the dry zone. It makes 

 a fair firewood in those places. Although the fruit is supposed 

 to be edible, very few natives have tried it, and apparently 

 it is only used in times of great scarcity. 



