Anogeissus leiocarpa is a tall evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

 tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 native to savanna

Savanna

A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses.Some...

s of Tropical Africa. It is the sole West Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

n species of the genus Anogeissus

Anogeissus

Anogeissus is a genus of trees native to South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Africa, belonging to family Combretaceae. The genus has eight species, five native to South Asia, two endemic to the southern Arabian Peninsula, and one native to Africa. Anogeissus latifolia, known as dhaora, is one of...

, a genus otherwise distributed from tropical central

Central Africa

Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....

 and east Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

 through tropical Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

. A. leiocarpa germinates in the new soils produced by seasonal wetlands and grows at the edges of the rainforest, although not in the rainforest, in the savanna, and along riverbanks forming gallery forest

Gallery forest

Gallery forests are evergreen forests that form as corridors along rivers or wetlands and project into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands or deserts....

s. The tree flowers in the rainy season, from June to October. The seeds, winged samara

Samara (fruit)

A samara is a type of fruit in which a flattened wing of fibrous, papery tissue develops from the ovary wall. A samara is a simple dry fruit and indehiscent . It is a winged achene...

s, are dispersed by ant

Ant

Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...

s.

Ethnobotany

It is one of the plants used to make bògòlanfini

Bògòlanfini

Bògòlanfini or bogolan is a handmade Malian cotton fabric traditionally dyed with fermented mud. It has an important place in traditional Malian culture and has, more recently, become a symbol of Malian cultural identity...

, a traditional Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

an mudcloth. Small branches with leaves are crushed to make one of the yellow dye

Dye

A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....

s. The inner bark of the tree is used as a human and livestock anthelmintic

Anthelmintic

Anthelmintics or antihelminthics are drugs that expel parasitic worms from the body, by either stunning or killing them. They may also be called vermifuges or vermicides .-Pharmaceutical classes:...

 for treating worms, and for treatment of a couple of protozoan diseases in animals, nagana

Nagana

Nagana, also known as nagana pest or animal African trypanosomiasis, is a disease of vertebrate animals. The disease is caused by trypanosomes of several species in the genus Trypanosoma. The trypanosomes infect the blood of the vertebrate host, causing fever, weakness, and lethargy, which lead to...

 an animal trypanosomiasis

Trypanosomiasis

Trypanosomiasis or trypanosomosis is the name of several diseases in vertebrates caused by parasitic protozoan trypanosomes of the genus Trypanosoma. Approximately 500,000 men, women and children in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa suffer from human African trypanosomiasis which is caused by...

, and Babesiosis

Babesiosis

Babesiosis is a malaria-like parasitic disease caused by infection with Babesia, a genus of protozoal piroplasms. After trypanosomes, Babesia are thought to be the second most common blood parasites of mammals and they can have a major impact on health of domestic animals in areas without severe...

. The inner bark used as a chewing stick in Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

 and extracts of the bark show antibacterial properties. The stem barks contains castalagin

Castalagin

Castalagin is a ellagitannin, a type of hydrolyzable tannin, found in oak and chestnut wood and in the stem barks of Anogeissus leiocarpus and Terminalia avicennoides....

 and flavogallonic acid dilactone

Flavogallonic acid dilactone

Flavogallonic acid dilactone is a hydrolysable tannin that can be found in Rhynchosia volubilis seeds, in Shorea laeviforia, in Anogeissus leiocarpus and Terminalia avicennoides....

.