SAUSAGE TREE

                                                                 SAUSAGE TREE

SAUSAGE TREE Kigelia africana

                                   Leaves feathery compound with 3 - 4 pair of large leaflet

                                             Kigelia africana Jacaranda family

                                          Freshly cut fibrous fruit. Balam Kheera, Jhad Fanoos.
Sausage Tree :  An Avenue tree.  Can be seen in S, Bharti, Humayun, Amrita Shergil Marg and Copernicus Marg. In it s native African habitat a tree of open woodlands, and not too dry savannahs needing a warm climate and deep, well drained soil and plenty of water, specially when young. It prefers area of high humidity and often forms 'gallery forest' that follows  the course of a river. Seedling are sensitive to frost.

Uses ; African elephants and kudus (Antelope)  relish its leaves, but more older browser  on the African Savannah do not. The tree has  a long history of medicinal use in  Africa. Various parts are used  mostly for treating skin ailments but also for gastric complaints. A number of cosmetic companies produce skin creams and shampoos derived from the fruit. The boiled fruit also yield a reddish dye. A Botswana superstition holds that hanging the  fruit inside the house protects it from whirlwinds.

Fruit bats are the main pollinators of the sausage tree in Africa and the flowers have a peculiar sweet mousey smell that  bats must like. The long stalks probably evolved to hold  the flowers exposed, away from the dense canopy where the bats would have difficulty navigating with their sonar.

A large tree deciduous from tropical Africa, with a short thick trunk and spreading crown At most time of the year it either has large waxy liver colored flower or grey sausage shaped fruit dangling at the ends of very long, rope like stalks. It is the only exotic tree among the 13 species selected to line avenues in lutein's Delhi.

Seasons :

Leaves : Straggly or shed in January or February, new leaves in March and April. leaves feather compound with 3-5 sometimes 5 pairs of leaflets plus a single terminal one. Leaflets up to 15 cm long leathery and rough. New leaves emerge bright green. becoming sombre green above. pale underneath.

Flower : April to August. Flowers in loose clusters on very long dangling stalks up tp 6 m in length. The funnel shaped flowers are about15 cm long with gaping mouth. Dull maroon on the outside streaked with yellow or green inside the throat dark glossy crimson with a wrinkles embossed texture like seersucker. The buds open at night and fall off before dawn.

Fruit : From in the rains and remain for very long in the tree. Cucumber shaped 50 cm or more in length. (Self pollinating flowers produce shorter fruit) . Inside the grey woody shell is a fibrous pulp full of seeds like orange pips. The fruit are inedible and the seeds poisonous.

Bark : Grey brown not very rough, flaking in small plates.

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