Wild syringa | |
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Summer foliage | |
Autumn foliage | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
(unranked): | Angiosperms |
(unranked): | Eudicots |
(unranked): | Rosids |
Order: | Fabales |
Family: | Fabaceae |
Genus: | Burkea |
Species: | B. africana |
Binomial name | |
Burkea africana Hook. |
The Wild syringa (Burkea africana; Bambara: Siri) is a deciduous, medium-sized, spreading, flat-topped tree belonging to the family Caesalpiniaceae. The genus was named in honour of Joseph Burke, the botanist and collector.
Widespread in tropical Africa, it is found in Chad, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Zaire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa in the Transvaal region.
Leaves are bipinnately compound, silvery-pubescent or glabrescent. Flowers are creamy-white, fragrant and in pendulous racemes of up to 300 mm in length. The bark is toxic, rich in alkaloids and tannins and used for tanning leather. Pulverised bark is thrown into water to paralyse fish.