Antrocaryon micraster A. Chev. & A. Guillaum.

Antrocaryon micraster A. Chevalier & A. Guillaumin

Standard trade name: Antrocaryon

Local name: Aprokuma (Ghana)

A common, large, dry closed-forest tree growing up to 150 ft high and 7–9 ft in girth. In Ghana, antrocaryon is quite common along the northern edge of the high forest zone. It is also present in the southern portion of the Boumfum Forest Reserve along the Kwahu Scarp and in the Worobong Forest Reserve. Its distribution ranges from Sierra Leone to the Cameroons. The leaves are terminal with entire, acuminate, pinnate leaflets in 9 or 10 opposite pairs. The flowers are small, numerous, and greenish white.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.—The sapwood is greenish to yellowish white and the heartwood is grayish pink to reddish brown. The planed surface is lustrous. The texture is described as medium and it is straight-grained. The wood has neither a distinct taste nor odor. The air-dried wood is light weight and has an average weight of 31 lb/ft3.

SEASONING.—This wood dries quite rapidly with slight distortion. British Forest Products Laboratory kiln schedule L is recommended (FPRL, 1956).

DURABILITY.—The wood is not very durable and is also easily impregnated.

WORKING QUALITIES.—Although the wood is woolly when sawed, it generally works well with hand and machine tools. Nail and screw-holding qualities are good. The wood takes glue and responds to finishing treatments well.

USES.—The timber is used for planks and for furniture. It is also used for the preparation of packing cases.

XYLEM ANATOMY.—Growth rings absent. Wood diffuse-porous. Vessels: solitary but with a few radial multiples of 3 to 5 small pores; circular in outline, rarely angular; average pore diameter 196μm, range 112μm–238μm; average vessel element length 560μm, range 366μm–666μm; vessel wall thickness 3μm–4μm; perforation plates exclusively simple; vessel element end wall inclination slightly oblique to transverse; intervascular pitting alternate, rather large. Imperforate tracheary elements: septate fiber tracheids, average length 1269μm, range 966μm–1465μm; fibers with very few simple pits on tangential walls. Vascular rays: heterogeneous, mainly multiseriate, generally 3 cells wide, 5 to 20 cells high, but biseriate and uniseriate cells also present; fusiform rays up to 10 cells wide containing intercellular canals. Axial parenchyma: paratracheal, scanty, cells containing dark amorphous deposits. Crystals: abundant, generally cubiodal, present in ray cells as well as in fibers. Special note: Intercellular canals occur in some rays.

Antrocaryon micraster is a species of flowering plant in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae. It is native to tropical Africa, where it occurs in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. It grows in gaps in the forest canopy. It is harvested for its wood.