Superb Terminalia

Terminalia superba Engler & Diels

Standard trade name: Afara

Local names: Ofram (Ghana), Akom (Cameroons), Limbo, Chene-limbo, Frake, Noyer du Mayombe (French-speaking West Africa), Ka-ronko (Sierra Leone), Afara, Eji, Edo, Ojiloko (Nigeria)

A forest tree growing to 150 ft (rarely to 200 ft) high, with large, thin buttresses, a clean, straight bole, and a rather flat crown; bark ashy gray. Plants in the family Combretaceae are recognized by their exstipulate simple leaves, inferior ovary and often winged fruits.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.—The timber is grayish white or light yellowish brown with no distinct demarcation between heartwood and sapwood. Depending on locality, some woods have dark walnut-brown zones in the center. Therefore, the timber is divided into two groups depending upon the proportion of the log containing the dark coloration.

“Limba clair” or “White afara” is the term applied to timber with little or no dark coloration and “Limba noir” or “Dark afara” is applied to logs with extensive dark colored wood. The wood varies in weight. The recorded range is 25–49 lb/ft3, seasoned, and the green weight is about 55 lb/ft3.

SEASONING.—Although seasoning properties are not fully known, it is believed to kiln-season similarly to Terminalia ivorensis. The wood is commonly straight-grained.

DURABILITY.—Nondurable. Both sapwood and heartwood are susceptible to pin-hole borers; the sapwood is also susceptible to powder-post beetle attack. Preservative treatment in Nigeria indicates that afara is resistant to penetration of creosote by the open tank method but less resistant to treatment with aqueous solutions.

WORKING QUALITIES.—Generally the working properties of the wood are good. The straight-grained wood machines easily without pick-up. It holds nails and screws firmly, although there is sometimes a tendency to split. It is reported to have satisfactory veneer-cutting qualities by either the rotary or slicing methods. Afara finishes and glues well.

USES.—Afara is used for furniture, school furnishings, shop fittings, and joinery. It has been tried as railway cross-ties in Ghana and has proved satisfactory.

XYLEM ANATOMY.—Growth rings present. Wood diffuse-porous. Vessels: solitary but with a few radial multiples of 2 to 5 pores; circular or ovate in outline; average pore diameter 175μm, range 150μm–250μm; average vessel element length 703μm, range 433μm–866μm; vessel wall thickness averages 6.0μm; perforation plates simple; vessel element end wall inclination mostly slightly oblique; intervascular pitting alternate. Vascular rays: homogeneous, uniseriate, varying greatly in height, 2 to 25 cells high. Imperforate tracheary elements: fiber tracheids, average length 1645μm, range 1432μm–1998μm, without pits. Axial parenchyma: apotracheal, banded, abundant.

Terminalia superba, the superb terminalia, limba, or afara (UK), korina (US), frake (Africa), African limba wood, ofram (Ghana), is a large tree in the family Combretaceae, native to tropical western Africa.

It grows up to 60 m tall, with a domed or flat crown, and a trunk typically clear of branches for much of its height, buttressed at the base. The leaves are 10 cm long and 5 cm broad, and are deciduous in the dry season (November to February). The flowers are produced at the end of the dry season just before the new leaves; they are small and whitish, growing in loose spikes 10–12 cm long. The fruit is a samara with two wings.