YahGarden

Library · The Useful Plants of Nigeria, Part III (Kew Bulletin, Additional Series IX), 1915

Kigelia africana, Benth.; Fl. Trop. Afr. IV. Sect. 2, p. 536.

J. H. Holland, Part III, p. 511. Transcribed from the page image on September 25, 2026, as printed.

Kigelia africana, Benth.; Fl. Trop. Afr. IV. Sect. 2, p. 536.

Ill.—Engl. Bot. Jahrb. xxxviii. 1907, p. 263, ff. B-C.; Engl. & Drude, Veg. Erde, ix. (i.) 2, p. 594, f. 513 (habit).

Vernac. names.—[Rahaina, Nonon giwa (Hausa); Jirlahi (Fufulde), Belongu (Kanuri), Dalziel]; Etua (Sierra Leone, Scott Elliot); Etua (Fantu, Moloney).

Senegal, Gold Coast, S. Nigeria—Adaba, Cross River; N. Nigeria—Borgu, Bornu, Upper Benue and Lake Chad region.

A tree 20–50 ft. high. Splendid for shade, conspicuous on the Upper Benue, and in the Eastern Provinces, and said to replace the Kuka (Adansonia digitata) in parts of Bornu and Lake Chad (Kew Bull. 1910, p. 139).

Kigelia pinnata, DC. Fl. Trop. Afr. iv. Sect. 2, p. 537, a tree similar in appearance to K. africana, is said to occur in West Africa, but there are no specimens at Kew to support this view. The following references probably belong here:

Used by the natives of the Gold Coast in rheumatism and dysentery (Easmon, Col. Rep. Misc. No. 1, 1891, p. 55; Moloney, For. W. Afr. p. 398, K. pinnata); a remedy for dysentery in West Africa (Pharm. Journ. [4] xxiii. 1906, p. 105, “Aviangti,” K. pinnata); the bark and fruit used by the natives, medicinally, S. Nigeria (Thompson, List. of For. Trees, S. Nig. 1910, p. 7, “Pandoro” (Yoruba), Ijokham (Benin), K. pinnata).