Sierra Leone Frankincense

Daniellia thurifera

NAME: Daniellia thurifera

FAMILY NAME: Fabaceae

COMMON NAMES: Frankincense tree, Niger Copal Tree, Sierra Leone Frankincense

LOCAL NAMES: Iya

MORPHOLOGY: Daniellia thurifera is a large tree growing up to 45 metres tall. The straight, cylindrical bole can be around 40cm in diameter. The stem is long and column-like, hardly tapering; crown fairly small, deltoid, flattened, fairly open

USEFUL PART(S): Stem-wood dust

GENERAL USES: Medicinal, Wood

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo

WHY IS IT GREEN: Scabies, coughs, skin diseases and parasitic infections[

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: The wood is used for plywood, joinery, general millwork, furniture components, boxes and crates, a decorative veneer can be produced from selected logs

FUN FACT: Gum exudates from cracks and wounds in the trunk are used to make a varnish called 'West African Gum Copal'. A frankincense, it is sold as a perfume.

The gum when burnt keep away evil spirits.

FURTHER READING:

Govaerts, R. (2000). World Checklist of Seed Plants Database in ACCESS D: 1-30141.

Lock, J.M. (1989). Legumes of Africa a check-list: 1-619. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Sita, P. & Moutsambote, J.-M. (2005). Catalogue des plantes vasculaires du Congo, ed. sept. 2005: 1-158. ORSTOM, Centre de Brazzaville.

The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/

https://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Daniellia+thurifera

http://www.liberianfaunaflora.org/liberian-flora/leguminosae-caes/3493-daniellia-thurifera

CIRAD Forestry Department, 2009. Faro. [Internet] Tropix 6.0. http://tropix.cirad.fr/africa/faro.pdf. Accessed January 2012.