Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus Swietenia, indigenous to the Americas and part of the pantropical chinaberry family, Meliaceae.
Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant. Their parasitic lifestyle has led to some dramatic changes in their metabolism.
The Santalaceae, sandalwoods, are a widely distributed family of flowering plants which, like other members of Santalales, are partially parasitic on other plants. Its flowers are bisexual or, by abortion, unisexual. Modern treatments of the Santalaceae include the family Viscaceae (mistletoes), previously considered distinct.
Bombax is a genus of mainly tropical trees in the mallow family. They are native to western Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and the subtropical regions of East Asia and northern Australia. It is distinguished from the genus Ceiba, which has whiter flowers.
Ricinodendron is a plant genus in the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1864. It includes only one known species, Ricinodendron heudelotii, native to tropical Africa from Senegal + Liberia east to Sudan and Tanzania and south to Mozambique and Angola. It produces an economically important oilseed. The tree is known as munguella (Angola), njangsa (Cameroon), bofeko (Zaire), wama (Ghana), okhuen (Nigeria), kishongo (Uganda), akpi, djansang, essang, ezezang and njasang. Two varieties of the tree species are recognized R. heudelotii var. heudelotii in Ghana and R. heudelotii var. africanum in Nigeria and westwards.
Ancistrocladus is a genus of woody lianas in the monotypic family Ancistrocladaceae. The branches climb by twining other stems or by scrambling with hooked tips. They are found in the tropics of the Old World.
The subfamily Detarioideae is one of the subdivisions of the plant family Fabaceae (legumes). This subfamily includes many tropical trees, some of which are used for timber or have ecological importance. The subfamily consists of 84 genera, most of which are native to Africa and Asia. Pride of Burma and tamarind are two of the most notable species in Detarioideae. It has the following clade-based definition:
The most inclusive crown clade containing Goniorrhachis marginataTaub. and Aphanocalyx cynometroidesOliv., but not Cercis canadensisL., Duparquetia orchidaceaBaill., or Bobgunnia fistuloides(Harms) J. H. Kirkbr. & Wiersema.
Viscum is a genus of about 70–100 species of mistletoes, native to temperate and tropical regions of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia. Traditionally, the genus has been placed in its own family Viscaceae, but recent genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group shows this family to be correctly placed within a larger circumscription of the sandalwood family, Santalaceae.
Englerodendron is a small genus of legumes that are native to tropical Africa.
The wildlife of Nigeria consists of the flora and fauna of this country in West Africa. Nigeria has a wide variety of different habitats, ranging from mangrove swamps and tropical rainforest to savanna with scattered clumps of trees. About 290 species of mammal and 940 species of bird have been recorded in the country.
The brown-backed woodpecker is a species of bird in the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in a belt across the savannah region of sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania in the east. It is generally uncommon, but has a very large range and the population appears to be steady, so the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".
Maranthes is a genus of plant in the family Chrysobalanaceae described as a genus in 1825.
Synsepalum aubrevillei is a species of plant in the family Sapotaceae. It is found in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, and is threatened by habitat loss.
Utricularia pubescens is a small to medium-sized, probably annual, terrestrial or lithophytic carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia and is the only member of Utricularia sect. Lloydia. U. pubescens is native to India, tropical Africa, and Central and South America. It was originally published and described by James Edward Smith in 1819 and placed in its own section, Lloydia, by Peter Taylor in 1986. It grows as a terrestrial or lithophytic plant in boggy grasslands in damp peaty soils at altitudes from sea level to 1,900 m (6,234 ft). This species possesses small peltate leaves, which are diagnostic for this species in the genus.
Dacryodes is a genus of about 60 species of trees in the family Burseraceae. The generic name is from the Greek dakruon meaning "tear(drop)", referring to how resin droplets form on the bark surface.
Osyris compressa is a facultatively hemiparasitic, mainly South African plant of the sandalwood family, Santalaceae. Until recently, the favoured binomial name was Colpoon compressum, but around 2001, the genus Colpoon was included in Osyris on the basis of comparative DNA studies. That assignment is not final, however, and according to the Kew Gardens plant list, Colpoon compressum P.J.Bergius, though still in review, is the accepted name.
Cuviera is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae native to tropical Africa. It was originally described by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1807 and is named after the French naturalist Georges Cuvier.
Englerophytum is a group of trees in the family Sapotaceae described as a genus in 1914.
André Aubréville was a French botanist, professor at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and a member of the Academy of Sciences. He was the first scientist to introduce the term "desertification" (in his 1949 book: Climats, forêts et désertification de l'Afrique tropicale, and wrote a number of floras of former French colonies.
Okoubaka aubrevillei is a rare tropical tree species distributed throughout tropical rainforests of West and Central Africa that is thought to be the largest known parasitic plant.
