Bridelia micrantha

Mkarati, or Bridelia is indigenous to Tanzania and is very suitable for planting in East and Southern Africa. It Grows well in a variety of climates from river valleys to open woodland. 

Description: A medium sized, leafy evergreen usually with a dense spreading crown < 15m high. Bark is grey/brown and flakes with age. Young stems zigzag  and are dotted with breathing pore.. Leaves are alternate - appearing compound - and are shiny, dark green, 12 cm veins parallel, extending to the margin. Flowers are small, yellowish and bunched in the leaf axils. Male and female flowers are on different trees. Fruit are 8mm purple-black oval berries that are sweet and edible when ripe.

Uses:  Shade, mulch, fruit and medicine make the tree worth conserving, but grown sustainably the harvested tree produces fuelwood, charcoal timber, poles and tool handles.

Propagation: The tree is a prolific seeder and there are >20 000 seeds per kg. Germination of fresh seed is good at 90% within 30 days. No seed treatment is necessary.

Direct sow into pots for later outplanting.

Seed cannot be stored.

The tree is becoming scarce due to over-exploitation. The wood is termite resistant - which is probably why it is utilized so much.

Goats even chew on the bark and other animals feed on the berries.

At the village of Soko we found a huge tree and the fallen fruit - seed - could be scooped up by the handful.

Bauhinia variegata

Bauhinia, Orchid Tree or Camel's Foot originated from Tropical Asia, India and China. In Tanzania the species grows well and is used as an ornamental tree.

Description: A small semi-deciduous tree to about 6m. Bark is grey and smooth, furrowed and flaking as the tree becomes older. Leaves are alternate, dull green with two lobes 10 - 12 cm across - camel foot shaped -  veins radiating from the base. Flowers are pink/white in short sprays with each flower having five petals marked with rose/yellow/green. Often one petal different in shape and colour as with an orchid. Fruit are flat brown pods >20cm long twisted when open releasing flat seeds 1cm across.

Uses: Principally in Tanzania as an ornamental tree but the pods and flowers are edible and used throughout Asia. Wood is suitable for fuelwood, tool handles. Fodder, shade and soil conservation.

Propagation: 4-5 000 seeds per kg and fresh seed germinate within three weeks (70%). Seeds can be stored but will require soaking before planting. Sow directly into pots.

Our seed source was at the CEDAH complex and we supplied trees to most village/schools. Young seedlings are palatable to livestock and will be destroyed unless protected.

Bauhinia petersiana

Mgobwali or White Bauhinia [Edible Bauhinia] is indigenous to Tanzania and other parts of Africa. It grows on old termite mounds in woodland areas of medium altitude.The species tolerated dry periods and is noticeable because the thick, black seedpods remain on the tree after the seed have been explosively dispersed.

Description: An evergreen and sometimes deciduous tree > 7m, round-shaped with spreading branches almost from the ground. Branchlets had brown hairs. Bark is pale to dark brown, powdery and smooth when young and flaking in vertical strips when older. The leaves are alternate and simple, blue/green in colour and divided into two lobes - camel foot - 3 - 8 cm across and tomentose below. Flowers are fragrant and white with pink stamens. Petals are wavy and bend backwards. Fruit are dark brown/black pods, smooth, 18cm long and 6 - 8cm wide, splitting explosively to expel 5 - 8 brown/purple seeds that are oily and shiny.

Uses: Seeds are a food source in famine time (not preferred) and early explorers ground a coffee substitute  from the seeds, traditional medicine from roots and leaves, fodder from leaves (and sometimes pods), shade, amenity, tannin from the roots.

Propagation:  There are 1 500 seeds per kg and seeds can only be stored with refrigeration. Pre-soak seed in cold water for 12 hours or carefully nick the seed coat. Sow direct into pots.

There were a few trees on the road to Leguruke and along the section of main road around Kikatiti.

Farmers have left them growing which indicates they have seen value in the tree. We collected seed on occasion and sent some trees out to the various villages.

Annona squamosa

Mtopetope, or  Custard Apple is indigenous to the West Indies and Central America and is grown throughout the tropics. Around Arusha I found it to be an occasional species and usually in gardens of people with an interest in planting them.

The species requires >1000mm rainfall and prefers slightly acid soils.hile it can survive drought, it requires uniform soil moisture from flowering to fruit well.

Description: A small semi-deciduous tree growing perhaps to 6 metres with a short trunk, then branching out widely. Bark is grey with an interlaced pattern of shallow fissures. The leaves are alternate, thin and a dullish green.Narrow oval in shape - 7 - 15 cm. The leaves shed in drought conditions. Flowers are inconspicuous and in groups of 2 - 4, though also solitary and on a stalk. Each flower has 3 fleshy outer petals 2.5cm long, light green and purple at the base - there are 3 inner petals, very small to non-existent,. The fruit are compound and roughly heart-shaped, 5 - 10 cm in diameter. The skin is green/yellow and sometimes powdery. Inside the flesh is yellow/white, aromatic and sweet. The fruit is in sections and within each section is a shiny, large black seed.

Uses: Fruit - has a high vitamin C count. Of course the tree produces fuelwood (but it is too valuable a tree to destroy), ornamental and shelter.

Propagation: The species is best propagated from seed and well stored seed may last for 10 months. There is no treatment necessary to the seed which should be sown directly. No doubt fresh seed is best. Germination is often within a month.

Trees should not be planted closer than 6 metres apart because the tree is susceptible to root-rot. Fruit is left on the tree until it is ripe.

We did not produce many trees for outplanting because seed was difficult to acquire and there were not many sites suitable for outplanting. 

  

Albizia schipmeriana subsp. schimperiana

Mruka is what we called the species in our seminars, from the Kimeru Mduruka, but I find it difficult to identify separately to Albizia gummifera, the most reliable method of identification being the longer seed pods in this species. The name may not be important and harvested the tree has many uses, but these days who would want to down such a beautiful and (when still standing) useful tree.

Description: A semi deciduous tree up to 20 metres with a wide, umbrella shaped crown. Bark is smooth and usually grey and perhaps brownish. Branchlets have velvety brown hairs. Leaves are compound - 4 - 7 leaflets each side on a stalk of about 25 cm. Leaflets are pale and hairy beneath and upper-side glossy green. Tips are rounded. Flowers are creamy white in loose conspicuous heads. Stalks are slightly hairy. Fruit are numerous and persistent dull brown pods with thicker edges. 30 x 6 cm but often smaller with many large seeds.

 

Uses: Fuel-wood and charcoal, timber, tool handles, medicine, bee fodder, monkeys too eat the flowers, shade. soil conservation, nitrogen fixation, gum.

 

Propagation:  There are up to 15 000 seeds per kg. Seeds are attacked by insects on the tree, so need to harvested as soon as ripe. Germination is less than 50% and sporadic. Best and even germination is achieved by  nicking the seed-coat before sowing directly into pots, or by hot water soaking for 24 hours.

Seed stores well if kept cool and dry and insect free.

Seedlings in the nursery are susceptible to pest so should not be retained in the nursery for long.

The species is most suited to higher, cooler sites and prefers shade when first out planted.

A tree behind our house at Makumira always flowered profusely and attracted nuisance monkeys. That same tree did not shed leaves  perhaps because the soil moisture levels were higher than other areas.

It is a good tree to nurture. But needs shade when first out-planted.

Albizia lebbeck

Mkingu in Swahili, and the English woman's tongue referring to the long, brown seed pods, is a tree that has been introduced through tropical regions. Indigenous to India there are plantations in South-East Asia, North and West Africa and South America.

In Tanzania it has been planted mainly as a shade tree and is planted in lower and medium altitudes. The tree  is common in Morogoro and Tanga, preferring black cotton soils with a reasonably high water table - roots are near the surface. The species thrives in most soils.

Description: A deciduous tree to about 14 metres high but with adequate moisture may reach to >20 metres. The tree has a short truck and large branches to support a wide, dense crown. Bark is grey - blueish with brown pore and becomes rough and fissured. Leaves are compound and feathery with + - 10 pairs of leaflets, rounded at the tip and 2 - 3 cm. Branchlets and leaves have distinctive soft, golden hairs. Flowers are numerous, cream, pink and yellow about 3 - 5 cm across, half spherical and stalked. Flowers last just a few days. Fruit are shiny yellow-brown pods - bulging over seeds - in clusters and are borne on the tree for a long time. The seeds in the pods clatter in the wind.

Uses: Fuelwood and charcoal, timber (mainly furniture & flooring), posts, poles, fodder, bee fodder, shade, nitrogen fixation, soil conservation, gum/soap.

Propagation: There are about 10 000 seeds per kg - best collected from the tree but not necessarily and can be stored for a long time if kept dry and insect free. Germination is good at 80% with best results from nicking the seed. Immersion in hot water and soaking for 12 hours is also effective.

Direct sowing into pots is best for later outplanting but a nicked seed placed under a cowpat will grow and survive if protected.

Mkingu grows rapidly on good sites viz. at Valeska Primary School where good care and attention was given to the plantings. It is palatable to stock so protection is required until the tree is above browsing height.

The timber is hard and heavy with a good grain for finished timber. Otherwise a good fuelwood.

   

The Yew Tree at Brockenhurst

Taxus baccata, the Yew tree is of little importance in the scheme of things. The species was planted in cemeteries in the past and it slow growing. Certainly the foliage is poisonous but the fleshy red berries are temping to kids and I ate some with no apparent ill effects.

History records that Yew timber was used for making the famous English longbows - the tension between sapwood and hardwood giving its spring. The wood is hard and durable and I have read that a spearhead was found that was dated back 400 000 years!
But mostly the tree has been planted in churchyards and cemeteries - probably for mystical reasons in the early days, then as tradition.

I was in the New Forest in the South of England and heard that the oldest tree in the forest was a 1000 year old Yew tree at St. Nicholas Church. The New Forest had been set aside as a hunting ground by and for ancient kings.

The church is in the Brockenhurst Parish and the area has been a religious place since at least an Augustine Mission 590 - 600.

A record shows that by 1160 Brockenhurst had become part of the great de Reduers field. and the Lord of the Manor was obliged to provide 'littler for the king's bed and fodder for his horse' whenever the king(s) came hunting. So Norman and Angevin kings probably worshiped at St. Nicholas.

Friends took us for a day trip around the New Forest and they had a 'secret location' for us to visit.  I could not believe my eyes when we passed a small sign pointing towards St. Nicholas Church. I remembered it because that was the name of a church on Barrington Street, Christchurch close to where I grew up. So the tree association was in my memory.

We were indeed going to St. Nicholas church because our friend had on a previous visit found a small New Zealand cemetery. This is a well-cared-for memorial to First World War soldiers who had been injured and treated at the hospital set up at Brockenhurst. The soldiers buried here had not survived after being sent to the hospital.
Of course we had never heard of the Hospital at Brockenhurst, nor of the cemetery but it was a privilege to be able to honour the men buried there. When we arrived home a large book arrived in the mail - for which we are very grateful - it is titled 'New Zealand Graves at Brockenhurst' by Clare Church and it details the lives of the men and provides some of the history.

Our friends had no idea that the Yew tree stood in the church grounds!

 The tree is not an elegant one, but it is large as far as a Yew tree goes and it is the tree that slightly obliterates the church steeple.
Never-the-less in 1793 the girth was 15 feet, by 1930 it was 18 feet and at present it is 20 feet - this is measured at 'breast height' = 5 feet above the ground [here in NZ it is 4'6"].

If I was living in the UK I would probably like to take cuttings and propagate a few plants - there would be little value and it would be just out of interest.
It is interesting to speculate who planted the tree (I guess it was planted and not deposited by a bird).

Say we accept the tree was established in the year 1000, that means it was 27 years old when William the Conqueror was born!

This certificate shows with some authority that the tree is indeed over 1000 years old.

I was fascinated with this headstone to the memory of Harry Mills - 'Brusher Mills'  who was Snake Catcher in the New Forest. He died 1 July 1905 - I bet he could tell some stories!

Low cost household nursery

It is not always possible for people to purchase trees for household, farm or village planting programmes. And again, it is not everyone's interest to spend time growing seedlings especially in hotter/drier areas.

If you remember my Footsteps NZ - TZ blog about Mama Bustani, there are some people who will want to grow a few trees and may no have financial resources to put into the project.

A person may be able to grow only twenty trees and there are of course no limits.

 This small nursery site is designed to maintain moisture levels and assist the establishment of pricked out seedlings of cuttings.

The nursery site is dug into the soil [the soil dug out can be used in the pots - soil mix]. If some plastic sheeting is available, lining the excavated hole is an added benefit. Large stones are placed at the bottom and finer  gravel as a floor to sit the pots on and to level the bottom.

Use bricks or stones to hold up a removable shade-frame made from sticks, bush or any light material.

Pots may be reused polythene pots that are commonly in use, or any container that is suitable [with drain holes] or containers can be made out of banana trunk fibre [bark] or light similar material.

The fibre strip needs to be about 6cm wide and placed in a cross and stand a bottle in the center.
Fold the the strips up the bottle and tie a thin piece of banana fibre/string to hold in place. Trim with a sharp knife

The fibre takes the shape of the bottle and the bottle can be carefully removed then the cavity left is simply filled with soil mix.

A seedling can be pricked out into the pot, or a seed/seeds can be sowed directly. The pot can be set on the nursery site and grown on.
It is a good idea to harden the plants off - exposing them to harsher weather conditions - before outplanting.

There is no need to remove the fibre pot at planting, but the whole thing should be buried because fibre exposed to the air could act as a wick, drawing moisture from the plant.

Not every location has banana fibre available - other suitable materials are - sacking, fertilizer bags, old trouser material, cardboard.

It is always interesting to experiment.

Adansonia digitata

The Baobab is an icon of all Africa as is the flat-topped Acacia. Mbuyu in Swahili and is the tree in my story 'Ndoto ya Grace' Grace's Dream.

The Baobab differs in form throughout Africa but can still be recognized. 'The tree that God planed upside down' because for much of the year the tree is leafless.

It is one of the longest living trees in the world >1000 years! The tree is remarkably drought resistant and the pithy wood holds a lot of moisture - my main picture on the Footsteps NZ - TZ blog is of a Baobab with a hole in it made by elephants searching for water.

Description: I don't really need to describe the tree. A large, deciduous tree with a thick trunk >8m, with  the tree reaching >20m in height - thick branches. The tree is bare for as long as 9 months. The bark is smooth and grey, very thick. Leaves - like fat fingers for the name - and lightish green (and usually a long way from the ground). Flowers are large and white, opening at night to attract bats for fertilization - the nectar has an unpleasant fragrance. Fruit are large, hairy and yellow/brown on long stalks - easily seen on the bare tree. There are around 100 seeds lying in a white/pink powdery pulp, which is edible.

Uses: Fodder - the fallen leaves are eaten by browsing animals. Food - the leaves are eaten in some areas and the dry pulp in the seed capsule is cream of tartar - high in calcium and vitamin C. Made into drinks and coating for traditional sweets. Medicine from bark and roots.String and rope is made from fibre within the bark.

Propagation: There are + - 2 500 seeds per kg and propagation is best by seed. Germination rate is sporadic and can even take as long as seven years! Nicking the seed is beneficial and germination may occur within 30 - 50 days.

The tree grows quickly and is both fire and termite resistant.

Seeds are eaten by monkeys - and humans.

We never produced many Baobab trees for outplanting because they take up so much area when they grow. We did produce a few 'for fun' and they are growing well.

Corylus avellana

Corylus avellana in New Zealand is called 'Hazel Nut' and in America it is known as 'Filbert' , which is the way with common names.

We never grew Hazels in Tanzania, but it is a species that could grow in cooler areas. However the reason I want to discuss this species is that it is useful throughout the world and there is a story about it.

The production of hazel nuts was deemed to be a cash crop for people who have such and interest so at the nursery we decided to produce some for sale.
The idea was that roasted hazel nuts, coated in chocolate could be sold at a premium - especially targeting the Japanese market.
The 'demand' was that the nuts should be of a large, even size. So cultivars were produced and one called 'Whiteheart' was deemed to be the best. But the variety did not pollinate well because of the different ripening times of the male and female flowers. Several varieties of pollinators were identified.

We sought guidance from the academics Lincoln University and they could provide cutting material. Corylus avellana is difficult to propagate from cuttings, and were were advised that the cuttings needed to be set into trays at the very earliest instance. The cutting material was from suckers.
The first year we took the cuttings and packed them in water-retaining crystals and set the cutting into trays back at the nursery. Then sat them on heat and under mist. Out of all that, the result was a 10% take. Very expensive plants indeed, especially so because Lincoln University is some 300 km from the nursery and workers needed to be accommodated and fed.

The next few years, we ran a ferry service of filed trays to Lincoln where the cuttings were set and ferried back to the prop house at the nursery - all on the advice of the academics - but all very expensive. The take was not improved by doing this and the cost of production had to be subsidized by other crops. The pollinators were doubly difficult to produce and the cutting material was not available in good amounts.

When I returned from Tanzania the production of Corylus avellana was still lower than demand and the method had not improved. Below is the method I devised that results in a take of around 90%.

But I'm not all that sure that 'Whiteheart' are any better than than other varieties and for sure do not produce a large nut.
I like all nuts and particularly enjoy hazels, but I'm not much of an expert on confectionery. Those Ferrero Rocher chocolates are a testament to marketing with tiny hazel nuts that I would probably reject - and for me they do not rate when compared to chocolate scorched almonds!
So big nuts are not all that important when it comes to confectionery.

Description: A shrub or small deciduous tree up to 3 m. Many branched and often with suckers. Growing tips hairy. Bark is greyish and smooth - growing tips green. Leaves ovate and toothed >10cm but often smaller. Mid green. Make flowers are drooping catkins and female are inconspicuous, small, green. Nuts are in winged husks that open to reveal a hard shelled nut - sometimes in clusters of up to 4.

Uses: Mainly known for nut production, but provides good, low shelter shelter. Hot burning fuelwood and coppices well.

Propagation:

Well the pic isn't all that clear.

Grow stool plants and allow suckers to start. Place over two old car tyres and fill with sawdust [or other media]. It is reasonable to wound the suckers.
After the growing season, remove the tyres and strip away the media. This reveals rooted suckers that can be cut off and potted on.

Otherwise plants are produced by growing the nuts as a seed - I usually crack the hard shell.

Here in New Zealand aphids are attracted to the leaves but do not seem to do harm. However the aphids are able to move on to other plants.
In production orchards the suckers become a problem and are removed when small by using a chemical desiccant.

Albizia gummifera

Albizia gummifera has been called Peacock Flower but the Swahili name of Mkenge is more understood in Tanzania.

A tree endemic to East Africa but is also found in West Africa, Ethiopian Zaire and Madagascar. In Tanzania it is found in rainforest from around 600 m - 2 600 m above sea level. There was a very large tree behind out house at Makumira.

Description: A large deciduous [or partly deciduous] tree to 15 m, with branches ascending to form a flat top. Trunk diameter >1 m. Bark is grey and smooth. Leaves are shiny and dark green with leaflets being rectangular and the veins diagonal. Flowers white/pink clusters with prominent stamens. Fruits are pods in bundles and shiny brown, flat with raised edges >20 cm long [sometimes shorter] and 3 cm wide containing 8 - 41 flat, brown seeds.

Uses: Firewood, general use timber, household utensils [no taste to the wood], beehives, traditional medicine, fodder, bee forage, soil conservation, nitrogen fixation, shade, shelter.

Propagation: There are >15 000 seeds per kg which can be stored for a year if kept dry and insect free. Germination is quick, 4 -12 days and with a rate of >80%.
Fresh seed will germinate without treatment but stored seed will need cold water soaking for 12 hours, better though is to nick the seed coat.
In the pot the seedling grows well and needs [or performs best] shade when first out-planted.
The tree is fast growing in good conditions and will coppice.

The gum makes a lather/soap, but despite the name, gum is not harvested from the tree. The pale brown heartwood is reasonably strong and is easy to work.
The nectar in the flower attracts monkeys, and they eat the whole flower. Monkeys can be raiders and damage other crops.
The leaves quicken the ripening of bananas when layered in unripe fruit.
Generally it a an attractive tree.

Acacia xanthophloea

We did not grow Acacia xanthophloea in the nursery because the tree is associated with areas where there is a high water table, so we did not have areas to plant them - though they would be good at Muriet village.
The Swahili name is Mgunga but as well there are a number of tribal names. The English Fever Tree came about (a) because the local people used a bark infusion as a malaria remedy and (b) because early Europeans associated malaria with the tree because mosquitoes live in the water where they grow, so they recognised the association.

Village authorities generally tend to prohibit the cutting of the tree because it grows in groups and the latent belief that it is a malaria cure - which it is not, though who knows maybe it was, because the parasite becomes resistant to treatments as time goes on.

The tree is easily recognised by its green-yellow bark and the fact that it usually grows in groups.

Acacia mearnsii

Acacia mearnsii is the (English) Black wattle, or in Swahili Muwati.

The tree is indigenous to Australia and has a wide natural range - from the hot Queensland in the North to cool Tasmania in the South. In Tanzania it is planted at higher elevation, 1,500 - 2, 500m and is planted on many homesteads.
At Lushoto commercial plantations were established for the extraction of tannin, but the operation seems to be in limbo.

Description: A small tree up to 15 m high. The tree often leans because of the shallow root system. Bark is grey and smooth when young becoming black and fissured with splits and curling with age. The split release brown resinous gum. Leaves are feathery and a dull green, leaflets are small. The stalks are10 - 12 cm long and there is a gland at the base. Flowers are pale yellow, small round heads on branched stalks - sweetly scented. Fruit are pods, either straight or or bent 5 - 10 cm jointed between the seeds. The pods dry to a dull brown colour.

Uses: Very good firewood and charcoal. Poles, posts and tool handles. Good bee forage (pollen), soil conservation, nitrogen fixation, fibre (bark), gum, tannin.

Propagation: There are 50 - 80 000 seeds per kg, they are black and hard and store well.
Germination is >80% if hot water soaked or exposed to fire. Nicking is a sure method but is fiddly because the seed is small.
The tree grows well in nursery pots and performs well at outplanting - responds to super phosphate.

I have grown this species in the NZ nursery as it is used as a chipping crop. However it can become a pest and will even survive amongst P. radiata plantings.
My opinion is that green trees are always good in Tanzania and climate will control its spread. Fuelwood is in short supply so controlling its spread. It does not have thorns.
Thin strips of fresh bark (from young trees) make good cordage - especially in making wattle and daub buildings - drying to be very firm.
The tree grows quickly but tends to be short-lived.
Termites damage the tree from time to time and sometimes there are fungal attacks.
However the tree is useful as cash crop on small scale farms.

Acacia albida

Acacia albida is also known botanically as Faidherbia albida and the Swahili name we used was Mgunga, which is known a a strong upright tree.
Mgunga is indigenous to the Middle East and much of Africa - the drier, semi-arid areas, as well as riverine zones in Tanzania where it will grow to an elevation of 1800m. The species generally prefers well drained soils.

Description: Mgunga is one of the tallest of the Acacias - to 30m, with a high rounded crown. It is deciduous often spring to life just before the rains. The branchlets tend to zigzag and are shiny grey. Bark is dull grey, fissured with scales. Thorns are in pairs and often pointing downwards - straight about 2cm. Leaves are compound 3 -8 pairs of pinnae each with 5-25 pairs of grey/green leaflets up to 1cm - rounded and overlapping. Flowers are slender spikes to 14cm, creamy white and attractive to bees, fragrant and appear before foliage. Fruit are distinctive twisted pods, twisted and brown-orange to 25cm long, thick - especially the edges, containing >20 distinctive, hard seeds.

Uses: Timber - local construction, firewood and charcoal, posts, utensils, food flavoring (pods), stock fodder (especially the fallen pods), shade, nitrogen fixation (soil conservation).

Propagation: There are >9000 seeds per kg with 75% viability. Seeds are able to be stored for a long period if kept dry and free from insect attack.
Nicking the seed before direct sowing provides the most even germination. Treating with hot water and soaking for 24 hours is effective but needs to be repeated on seeds that do not swell on the first attempt.

The pods fall to the ground and are much liked by livestock. Of all the indigenous trees that we supplied, Mgunga was the most widely accepted. This is because it is useful and farmers liked the fodder supplied.
In some areas where the tree was unknown, we had to do some talking for the species to be accepted.

After outplanting, the tree grows rapidly - which is a good thing because it does not have to be protected from browsing animals for an extended period.
The species is good to shade crops because it does not compete and enriches the soil.

Cordia africana

Cordia africana, or Mringaringa is a large tree that somehow always looks dry because of the colour of its foliage. Most usually I encountered the species standing alone in farms as a remnant of mixed forest cover. The smell of the flowers drew me to the tree.
Mringaringa was one of the indigenous trees that farmers were prepared to plant.
It is a forest tree and tolerates a wide variety of soils but does not tolerates extremes of drought.

Description: A much branched semi-deciduous tree with a rounded crown growing to about 12 metres. Bark is pale brown and finely grooved but rougher with age. The leaves are large and oval, slightly pointed at the tip and rounded at the base. The underside is covered with soft brown hairs. The leaves feel dry/leathery. Flowers are showy, with white petals and are funnel shaped, scented and attractive to bees.. Fruits are yellowish, 1 cm and in hairy cups. The flesh is sticky and each fruit contains 4-6 seeds.

Uses: Mringaringa is valued for its timber and makes fine furniture, roof shingles and traditional beehives; firewood, medicine (roots & bark), bee forage, shade in coffee plantations, soil conservation and is used as a boundary marker.

Propagation: There are >3000 seeds per Kg with a viability of around 70%. Fruits become ripe August/September. Seed stores for 1 year.
Soak seed in cold water for 12 hours prior to sowing directly into pots and the seedlings are big enough for outplanting after 1 year.
Protected trees establish quickly in the field.

The heartwood is hard and makes very nice bowls and furniture taking polish very well.
The tree does not compete greatly with crops like coffee because the leaves become mulch and as the shuts down, losing its leaves, it provides the opportunity for the soil to rehydrate.

Morus Species

Mulberry is a common tree in parts of Europe and the Middle East and while probably origination from temperate climates, it grows successfully in Tanzania.
There are actually three main species of Morus - alba, indica and nigra. The Swahili name is Mforasdi - usually for the larger fruiting alba and nigra; and the local name Mandela for the smaller fruiting indica. Indica is smaller in leaf and habit as well, but still I will lump these trees together here.

Description: A semi [sometimes] deciduous shrub, much branched <6 metres. Bark is grey and rough with age and resinous gum when cut - young wood has milky sap. Leaves are heart-shaped and toothed - alba having larger leaves and indica < 4cm. Dull green and with hairy underside. Flowers are separate sexes on the same tree - female with long soft hairs. Fruit are compound berries, red and turn black when ripe.

Uses: Fruit, fodder, also fodder for silk worms, fuel, shade, live fence.

Propagation: Easily struck from 8cm cuttings and grows quite fast.

Mandela is not popular because the fruit is small and insignificant but children eat them. However it is a very good tree for fodder as it regrows well, so good as a shelter fence that can be harvested.
The trick to be able to eat the fruit of the Black Mulberry is to beat the birds and monkeys. We had a tree outside our window and cheeky monkeys would regularly rob the pre-ripe fruit!
I was surprised how easily it is to propagate after buying Black Mulberry at home for an expensive price - and they did not perform well at all!
A vet called on me at Makumira wanting me to produce Mulberry trees in large number to start a silk industry - I was able to help him but by focus was not to set individuals up in their own industry. It turned out to be just an idea on his part, but it would be viable in the future.

Moringa oleifera

The English name Drumstick Tree refers to the mature seed pods, but it is also called Horse-radish because of the spice flavoring from the roots. The Swahili name is Mlonge.
The tree is indigenous to Indian but has been planted all over the tropics - probably by Indian people because it is a very useful tree.
The tree has naturalized in coastal East Africa and grows best to about 500m above sea level. The tree is quite drought resistant.

Description: A deciduous tree <10m high with pale, feathery foliage. Bark is thick and corky and in mature trees peels in patches. Leaves are pale green compound in groups of three along the stalk. the whole leaf is 30 - 50 cm. each leaflet is oval with the tip rounded < 2cm long. Flowers are cream to fading yellow in long sprays, fragrant and attracting insects. Fruit are long capsules/pods to about 45cm in triangular sections, splitting when ripe to release dark brown 3 winged seeds.Uses: Food - young leaves, young pods and also flowers. Spice flavoring from the young roots. medicine, fodder, bee fodder, oil (Ben oil), soil conservation, fibre, live fence and water purification from the seed cake.

Propagation: There are >5 000 seeds per kg with a viability of 60% and the seed may be kept for up to 1 year if kept dry.
Sow directly into pots or cold water soak for 6 hours prior - I never found this necessary.
Seedling grow quickly and establish well in good conditions.

The tree is very useful but the populations around Arusha/Meru don't know the species well well so do not utilize it. One Indian woman in Valeska had a tree growing there and used it well but really the climate is not suited to the species and generally it does not thrive at such altitudes.
I trialled it and found it difficult to grow in the nursery - I guess the night temperatures were too cold.

There was an Indian ma who came around the area wanting farmers to plant Mlonge trees and he guaranteed to come back to purchase the seed - in the event he never came back, but when I was asked by the people I worked with, I told them the tree would not thrive unless in micro-climates that suit it.

However Mama Mbembe decided to recommend the project and went all out to provide seedlings and talk farmers into planting large areas [for them]. The results were patchy to say the least, and in the end farmers removed the surviving trees. It was a pity that they were removed because even if poorly growing, the tree is remarkably useful.

Water purification: After the oil has been removed from the seed [crushed] the remaining seed cake can be used to clean water. That is it causes clays silt and fecal content to lose its suspension in the water and become sediment. It does not make the water pure just clean - therefore it still requires boiling but is much more pleasant to drink.
Boil the water!