Nesogordonia papaverifera (A. Cheval.) Capuron

Nesogordonia papaverifera (A. Chevalier) R. Capuron

Standard trade name: Danta

Local name: Danta (Ghana)

A deciduous forest tree up to 110 ft in height and 9 ft in diameter. Leaves alternate, up to 5 × 2.25 in, ovate-elliptic, apex acuminate, base cuneate, margins entire, minutely stellate-puberulous below, becoming glabrous. The flowers are yellowish white, few, about 0.5 in long and in slender, axillary cymes.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.—Danta has an average weight of 46 lb/ft3 seasoned and about 63 lb/ft 3 green. It has a fine, even texture. The reddish brown heartwood is distinct from the light-colored sapwood, which is usually about 2 in or more wide. Danta has a narrowly interlocking grain producing, when quarter-sawn, a striped appearance somewhat similar to that of sapele.

SEASONING.—Danta seasons rather slowly, but well, with comparatively little degrade. Knots have the tendency to split. British Forest Products Laboratory kiln schedule E is recommended (FPRL, 1956).

DURABILITY.—It is moderately durable. The heartwood is resistant to preservative treatment, whereas the sapwood is moderately resistant.

WORKING QUALITIES.—The timber works fairly easily with both hand and machine tools. The grain has a tendency to pick-up, especially when the quarter-sawn material is planed. This can be eliminated with the reduction of the cutting angle to about 15°. It tends to split on nailing but glues and finishes satisfactorily.

USES.—Danta is suitable for veneer and plywood, used for carriage and wagon work, and for general construction. It is also used for telephone poles and cross-arms and for tool handles. Because of its smooth wear and high resistance to abrasion, it is recommended for most forms of flooring, particularly where a decorative effect is desirable.

XYLEM ANATOMY.—Growth rings absent. Wood diffuse-porous. Vessels: solitary or in chains of 2 to 4; circular to wide elliptic in outline, occasionally angular, tyloses present; average pore diameter 75μm, rather uniform; average vessel element length 326μm, range 275μm–413μm; vessel wall thickness about 3μm; perforation plates generally simple; vessel element end wall inclination transverse to slightly oblique, intervascular pitting alternate, average in size. Nonseptate fibers with scanty, simple pitting scattered on radial walls. Vascular rays: storied, homogeneous, homocellular, mostly biseriate, occasionally multiseriate, 15 to 25 cells high. Axial parenchyma: paratracheal, abundant, with stained deposits in most; in uniseriate, tangential bands. The wood is a relatively advanced one. Special note: axial parenchyma in uniseriate, tangential chains.

Nesogordonia papaverifera is a species of flowering plant. Traditionally included in the family Sterculiaceae, it is included in the expanded Malvaceae in the APG and most subsequent systematics.

It is found in Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. It is becoming rare due to by habitat loss.