Local names:
Arabic (shajeret almarfin,sereh,sehel), Hausa (ballakani,agahini), Somali (chieh)
Boscia angustifolia is a shrub or small evergreen tree to 10 (14) m high, crown rounded, branches erect, bark smooth, light grey, fissured, glabrous, slash yellow; twigs covered with small, coriaceous leaves, in clusters of 3-10 on older branches, solitary on 1-year-old shoots. Leaves lanceolate or linear, oblong, mucronate, obtuse or retuse at the tip, rounded to cuneate at base, 6.5 cm x 1.5 cm, coriaceous, spread or erect, mat-green, nerves prominent, venation reticulate, midrib prominent below, stipules absent. Flowers small (7 mm), greenish-white, clustered in short, simple, terminal racemes about 7 cm in diameter, fragrant, sepals 4, ovate, stamina 3-8. Fruit a berry, spherical, 6-13 mm in diameter, often in groups of 3-5, rough skinned, yellowish when mature, containing 7 cream-coloured seeds. Two varieties are recognized: var. corymbosa’s leaves are minutely pubescent and variety angustifolia leaves are completely glabrous on the underside. The specific epithet angustifolia means narrow-leaved.
Ecology
B. angustifolia is a Sahelo-Sudanian species whose area of distribution extends from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. In Sudan it is found in all Savanna types and in deciduous woodland and bush land in West Africa. It usually grows in very arid sites such as hills, laterite outcrops and cliffs, and sometimes dry riverbeds.
Native range
Botswana, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Tree management
Trees are pruned to 2 m for forage production in Niger.
B. angustifolia is a Sahelo-Sudanian species whose area of distribution extends from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. In Sudan it is found in all Savanna types and in deciduous woodland and bush land in West Africa. It usually grows in very arid sites such as hills, laterite outcrops and cliffs, and sometimes dry riverbeds.
B. angustifolia is difficult to raise but direct seeding is recommended for its propagation.
The shrub readily establishes itself in adverse conditions and has potential for reclaiming degraded sites.
Fruit and seeds are edible after cooking. Stripped bark is eaten mixed with millet or as soup in West Africa. Pieces of boiled wood are used to sweeten milk.
The foliage is consumed by camels and small livestock, especially at the time of flowering and towards the end of the dry season.
Apiculture: In Zambia it is a good source of bee forage.
The tree was formerly converted into charcoal for gunpowder.
Timber: Wood hard, used in carpentry and water storage vessels.
Shade or shelter: The tree provides shade for livestock.
Medicine: Bark is applied on swollen feet, for kidney pains and stiff neck, roots for chest pains, fruit as a laxative. Pounded leaves are used as tonic for horses and camels.