Brachystegia boehmii is a tree native to eastern and southern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. It forms and an important component of miombo

Miombo

Miombo is the Swahili word for Brachystegia, a genus of tree comprising a large number of species. Miombo woodland is classified in the tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome...

 woodland. This particular species of Brachystegia

Brachystegia

Brachystegia is a genus of tree of the sub-family Caesalpinioideae that is native to tropical Africa. Trees of the genus are commonly known as Miombo, and are the predominant tree in the Miombo woodlands of central and southern Africa.-Species:...

occurs as far southwest as Botswana

Botswana

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...

. Common names are Mfuti (Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

) and Prince of Wales feathers.

Uses

The wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

 is medium reddish brown, heavy, tough and strong with a slightly interlocking grain. It is not easy to work and blunts tools very quickly. In Shona

Shona people

Shona is the name collectively given to two groups of people in the east and southwest of Zimbabwe, north eastern Botswana and southern Mozambique.-Shona Regional Classification:...

culture, infusions of the tree leaf have traditionally been used for treatment of constipation and lumbago amongst other things.