Dialium guineense

Dialium guineense, the velvet tamarind, is a tall, tropical, fruit-bearing tree in the flowering plant family Fabaceae. It has small, typically grape-sized, edible fruits with brown, hard, inedible shells.

Dialium guineense
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Dialium
Species:
D. guineense
Binomial name
Dialium guineense

Distribution

It grows in dense forests in Africa along the southern edge of the Sahel. In Togo it is called atchethewh.

The velvet tamarind can be found in West African countries such as Benin where it is called "Assiswè", Ghana where it is known as Yoyi, Sierra Leone where it is known as “black tombla”, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau where because of its texture is called "Veludo", Portuguese for velvet, and Nigeria where it is known as awin or igbaru in Yoruba,[2] icheku in Igbo and tsamiyar biri in Hausa.

Uses

The bark and leaves have medicinal properties and are used against several diseases.

Fruit

Fruit

Each fruit typically has one hard, flat, round, brown seed, typically 7-8 millimeters across and 3 millimeters thick. The seed somewhat resembles a watermelon seed (Citrullus lanatus). Some have two seeds. The seeds are shiny, coated with a thin layer of starch.

The pulp is edible and may be eaten raw or soaked in water and consumed as a beverage. The bitter leaves are ingredients in a Ghanaian dish called domoda.

African Velvet tamarind

Timber

Wood is hard and heavy and used for construction. The wood is also used for firewood and charcoal production

References
  1. IUCN SSC Global Tree Specialist Group & Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) (2022). "Dialium guineense". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2022: e.T204813231A204813233. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  2. Bascom, William R. (Jan 1951). "Yoruba Food". Africa. Cambridge University Press. 20 (1): 47. doi:10.2307/1156157. JSTOR 1156157. S2CID 149837516.
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