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This is a list of Southern African trees, shrubs, suffrutices, geoxyles and lianes, and is intended to cover Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. [1] The notion of 'indigenous' is of necessity a blurred concept, and is clearly a function of both time and political boundaries.
The timber of Khaya is called "African mahogany", with wood properties generally regarded as the closest to genuine mahogany. [2]The seeds of K. senegalensis have an oil content of 52.5%, consisting of 21% palmitic acid, 10% stearic acid, 65% oleic acid, and 4% "unidentifiable acid" [3]
The name sapele comes from that of the city of Sapele in Nigeria, where there is a preponderance of the tree.African Timber and Plywood (AT&P), a division of the United Africa Company, had a factory at this location where the wood, along with Triplochiton scleroxylon, Obeche, mahogany, and Khaya was processed into timber which was then exported from the Port of Sapele worldwide.
It is used in the construction of houses. It is also used as firewood. [3] Some examples of South African yellowwood antique woodworking were created with the wood of this tree. [5] The wood is also used for making floor boards and parquet blocks. The bark contains 3-4% tannin and is used for tanning leather. [6]
The wood is dense and very hard, difficult to plane, but drills, sands and turns well. It is termite resistant. It was once used for railway sleepers and is now prized for ornamental work and furniture. It burns very slowly with intense heat, and is often used for a fire which is intended to burn all night in order to keep wild animals at bay.
Podocarpus latifolius (real yellowwood, broad-leaved yellowwood, or South African yellowwood, Afrikaans: Opregte-geelhout, Northern Sotho: Mogôbagôba, Xhosa: Umcheya, Zulu: Umkhoba) [2] is a large evergreen tree up to 35 m high and 3 m trunk diameter, in the conifer family Podocarpaceae; it is the type species of the genus Podocarpus.
The wood polishes well and is well known in tropical Africa as Mukwa when used to make good quality furniture that has an attractive light brownish-yellow colour. It can also be used for curios, and implements. Since the wood does not swell or shrink much it is great for canoe building. Furniture and curios are often made from the reddish ...
The building of a reconstructed 9th-century Arab merchantman, the Jewel of Muscat, required thirty-eight tons of Afzelia africana wood, which was supplied from Ghana. Curved trees were chosen for the ship's frames and timbers. [8] The trade name for the wood of this species is doussié; it is known for being resistant to decay and termites. [3]