Albizia gummifera

Albizia gummifera is a species of legume in the family Fabaceae, native to sub-saharan Africa and Madagascar, and naturalized in Brazil. It is also known as peacock flower. It is recognisable as a very large deciduous, flat-topped tree reaching 24-27 metres in height and an attractive shape with thick branches. The largest specimens grow in wet or seasonally wet forest and closed woodland but it also thrives in some woodland areas with a notable dry season where it can be found at altitudes over 1500 metres. It grows best at moderate altitudes of around 700 - 1200 metres above sea level, but reaches down to below this at the southernmost extent of its range, in the Runde valley in Zimbabwe. It usually has a smooth bark, very rarely rough.

Description

A large spreading tree. It grows 30 m high. It is flat-topped. There are 2 varieties and it can form hybrids. It usually has smooth bark. The branches have fine hairs. The leaves are twice divided with 5-7 pairs of leaflet stalks and 9-16 pairs of leaflets. The leaflets are only hairy underneath along the midrib. The flowers are in half round heads. They are white. The fruit is a pod which is pale brown or reddish.

Edible Uses

The leaves are eaten and can be used to assist with banana ripening.

Medicinal Uses

An infusion of the bark is taken to treat malaria and to hasten parturition. The pounded bark is used as a snuff to treat headache, The bark is applied externally as a body wash to treat conditions such as scabies and psoriasis. The roots and leaves are purgative. They are used in the treatment of diarrhoea and eye troubles. The roots are soaked in water for 10 minutes, and the liquid is drunk to relieve the pain caused by sprains. They are also used in the treatment of sleeping sickness. The pounded roots are added to a bath to treat skin diseases. A decoction of the leaves is used as an antitussive and to treat asthma. The leaves are applied externally to sores and fractures. An extract of the crushed pods is drunk to treat stomach ache. A dichloromethane extract of the root bark showed considerable in-vitro antitrypanosomal activity, with an IC50 value of 0.07 μg/ml, which confirms its use as a traditional treatment of sleeping sickness.. Root bark extracts also showed in-vitro antimalarial activity against Plasmodium falciparum, although much less than chloroquine used as reference drug. The presence of triterpenoid saponins, sapogenin lactones and macrocyclic spermine alkaloids (budmunchiamines) has been reported for the stem bark. These last compounds were active against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.

Known Hazards

The wood dust is aromatic and peppery. It may cause irritation to the nose and throat of sawmill workers.

Distribution

It is a tropical plant. It grows in high altitude forests. In Malawi it grows between 900-2,000 m altitude.

Where It Grows

Africa, Angola, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, CAR, Congo, East Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Southern Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe,

Cultivation

Plants can be grown from seeds. Fresh seeds grow easily but stored seeds need to be put into hot water and allowed to cool before sowing to break the hard seed coat. Seeds can be collected direct from the tree.

Propagation

Seed - when sown fresh and still moist, the seeds do not require pre-treatment and may have a germination rate of up to 80% within 3 - 10 days. Stored seed develops a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing to speed up germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing.

Other Uses

The leaves are said to quicken the ripening of bananas. The heartwood is yellowish brown or reddish brown, often with a golden tinge; it is distinctly demarcated from the 7 - 10cm wide pale yellow or white sapwood. The grain is straight or interlocked, texture medium to coarse. The wood properties are variable and depend on the origin of the wood, that from Madagascar being heaviest and strongest. The wood is moderately light to moderately heavy. It generally saws and works fairly easily with ordinary hand and machine tools, but sawn and planed surfaces tend to pick up. The use of a filler is necessary to obtain a good finish. The wood holds nails and screws well and does not split easily. The gluing and staining properties are satisfactory, and steam bending properties moderate. Reports on durability of the heartwood are contradictory, but in general it is susceptible to fungal, wood borer and termite attack. The wood is used for light construction, furniture, cabinet work and various implements. It is also suitable for mine props, light flooring, joinery, interior trim, panelling, framing, toys and novelties, sporting goods, boxes, crates, carvings, peeled and sliced veneer, plywood, hardboard and particle board. Logs are traditionally used for the construction of canoes. The wood pulp is suitable for paper production. The wood is sometimes used as firewood and for making charcoal. The tree is valued for providing shade for crops such as coffee, tea and vanilla, and is also planted or retained for soil conservation and improvement. In an experiment in Ethiopia, the leaves and twigs contained per 100 g dry matter: N 3.8 g, P 0.2 g, K 1.5 g, lignin 26 g, soluble polyphenols 8.5 g; they had a C/N ratio of 12. Mulching a maize crop with the leaves and twigs resulted in a smaller yield increase than green manure of the other species tested, probably due to the low P and K content of the Albizia gummifera green manure.

Notes

There are 145-150 Albizia species. They grow in the tropics and subtropics. Also as Mimosaceae. The leaves can be used to assist ripening of bananas.

Synonyms

Also Known As

Djele, Goane, Mucherenje, Mupambangoma, Nipovera, Red nongo, Umusebeya

References (14)

• Bekele-Tesemma A., Birnie, A., & Tengnas, B., 1993, Useful Trees and Shrubs for Ethiopia. Regional Soil Conservation Unit. Technical Handbook No 5. p 76
• Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1930:218. 1930
• Chapman, J. D. & Chapman, H. M., 2001, The Forest Flora of Taraba and Andamawa States, Nigeria. WWF & University of Canterbury. p 183
• Dharani, N., 2002, Field Guide to common Trees & Shrubs of East Africa. Struik. p 45 (Albizia gummifera)
• Fowler, D. G., 2007, Zambian Plants: Their Vernacular Names and Uses. Kew. p 80

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