WorldFloraDB - Tetrapleura tetraptera

Characteristics

A deciduous tree. It grows 15-30 m tall. It has a straight trunk and a rounded crown. Sometimes the branches are layered and spreading. Large trees have small buttresses. The bark is thin and grey brown. It can be smooth or rough with shallow cracks. The leaves are twice divided. The leaf stalk is 8-23 cm long with 5-8 pairs of side branches with leaflets. Each of these stalks then has 6-12 leaflets one after another along opposite sides of it. These leaflets are oblong and 1-2 cm long. The tip of them is notched. They are softly hairy underneath. The flowers are on spikes beside the leaves. These are 4-14 cm long and one or two of them occur together. The flowers are small and yellow to pink to brown. The fruit is a woody pod with four wings. It smells of caramel. These pods are 12-23 cm long and can be straight or slightly curved. They are shiny and purple brown to black. The wings on each side have soft sugary pulp inside. This is edible. The seeds are in separate sections and rattle within the mature pod. The seeds are hard and dark brown. They are less than 1 m long.

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Tree 6–30 m. high.. Bark smooth to rather rough, grey or brown.. Young branchlets glabrous or almost so.. Leaves: petiole 4–11 cm. long, glabrous to puberulous; rhachis 7.5–23 cm. long, puberulous; pinnae 5–7(–10) pairs, opposite to alternate; leaflets 6–11(–13) on each side of a pinna, oblong-elliptic to elliptic, (0.4–)0.65–2.1 cm. long, (0.3–)0.55–1.3 cm. wide, rounded to emarginate at apex, appressed-puberulous beneath, glabrous or almost so above, on petiolules 0.5–0.7(–1) mm. long.. Racemes 4–14 cm. long, on peduncles 1.5–4 cm. long; pedicels 1–3 mm. long, puberulous.. Flowers yellowish to pinkish.. Calyx ± puberulous, 0.5–1 mm. long.. Petals 2–3.5 mm. long, 0.5–0.9 mm. wide, puberulous outside towards apex, or rarely glabrous.. Stamen-filaments 2.5–4.5 mm. long.. Pods 12–23(–25, fide F.C.B.) cm. long, 3.5–5.7(–6.5) cm. wide, dark brown, glossy, rounded and sometimes emarginate at apex.. Seeds 9–9.5 mm. long, 7–8 mm. wide and 3.5–4 mm. thick.. Fig. 8, p. 31.

Flowers creamy or pink, turning orange

A forest tree, to 80 ft, high

Dark green fern-like foliage

Fruits dark purple-brown.

Life form	perennial
Growth form	tree
Growth support	free-standing
Foliage retention	deciduous
Sexuality	hermaphrodite
Pollination	-
Spread	-
Mature width (meter)	-
Mature height (meter)	15.0 - 30.0
Root system	-
Rooting depth (meter)	-
Root diameter (meter)	-
Flower color
Blooming months	-
Fruit color
Fruiting months	-
Nitrogen fixer	-
Photosynthetic pathway	c3

Environment

Forest, especially secondary forest, growing best in the rainforest. It is found throughout the high forest zone, in riverine forest, in the southern savannah-woodland and in the forest outliers in the African plains.

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A tropical plant. It grows in lowland tropical rainforest. It suits humid locations. It can grow in arid places.

Light	-
Soil humidity	-
Soil texture	-
Soil acidity
Soil nutriment	-
Hardiness (USDA)

Usage

The pulp in the wings of the pods is eaten after it is ground and roasted. It is sweet and used in soups, sauces and other foods. The pulp is soaked in palm wine to flavour it. The charred fruit is used to flavour drinking water.

Uses	dye environmental use food fuel gene source material medicinal non-vertebrate poison oil poison seasoning timber wood
Edible	fruits leaves pods seeds
Therapeutic use	-
Human toxicity	-
Animal toxicity	-

Cultivation

Plants can be grown from seed. Seeds need to be separated out from the fleshy pulp before planting. The seed should be soaked in cold water for 24 hours before planting. Seed can be stored in a sealed container in a cool place. Plants can be budded.

Mode	seedlings
Germination duration (days)	-
Germination temperacture (C°)	-
Germination luminosity	-
Germination treatment	-
Minimum temperature (C°)	-
Optimum temperature (C°)	25 - 30
Size	-
Vigor	-
Productivity	-