Terminalia superba (PROSEA)
Introduction |
Terminalia superba Engl. & Diels
- Protologue: Monogr. Afr. Pflanzenfam. 4: 26, t. 14B (1900).
Synonyms
Terminalia altissima A. Chev. (1909).
Vernacular names
- Afara, white afara (En). Korina (Am). Limba, fraké (Fr).
Distribution
Native to west tropical Africa from Sierra Leone to western Congo and northern Angola (Cabinda); planted in plantations both within and outside its natural range, e.g. in South and Central America, central and east Africa, Hawaii, Fiji and the Solomon Islands. Within the Malesian region further trials exist in Sabah, Kalimantan and the Philippines.
Uses
T. superba is an important source of timber in Africa; the wood is used mainly as core and face veneer for plywood production. It is a promising fast-growing plantation species.
Observations
A large briefly deciduous tree up to 50 m tall, bole cylindrical, straight, branchless for up to 35 m, up to 120(-160) cm in diameter, with plank buttresses up to 6 m high, bark surface smooth, flaking off in small patches, greyish, inner bark yellowish; leaves obovate, (4-)6-14(-20) cm × 2.5-7(-10) cm, glabrous, cuneate at base, with (4-)6-8 pairs of secondary veins, petiole (1.5-)3-5(-7) cm long; flowers in an axillary spike 7-20 cm long, calyx tube tomentose; fruit broader than long, 1.5-2.5 cm × 4-7 cm, glabrous, broadly 2-winged. T. superba demands light and grows gregariously in semi-deciduous or evergreen, usually secondary forest and in clearings, up to 1000 m altitude. The sapwood is pale brown, the heartwood dark brown. The density of the wood is 480-650 kg/m3at 12% moisture content.
Selected sources
159, 210, 348, 359, 375, 386, 666, 681.