African greenheart

Piptadeniastrum africanum, known as dabema or dahoma, is a very large deciduous tree of the family Fabaceae (subfamily Caesalpinioideae, mimosoid clade) that dominates parts of the humid Guineo-Congolian forest from Senegal across to Sudan and south towards northern Angola. It reaches 40 to 50 metres in height, with a tall, clear, cylindrical bole supported by large, thin, plank-like buttresses and a wide, flat-topped, spreading crown. The bark is greyish and scaly, and the alternate leaves are large and twice-compound (bipinnate), bearing many pairs of small, narrow leaflets that give a feathery appearance. The tiny, creamy to pale yellow flowers are crowded into slender spike-like racemes. The fruit is a flat, narrow, oblong pod that splits along one edge to release several flat, papery, winged seeds dispersed by wind. It is an important timber tree as well as a major medicinal plant in its range.