Kampala Tree and Palm Directory

Tree Species
Common Name
Tree Description
Tree Uses

English: American cedar, Brazilian mahogany, cedrella, cigar-box tree, Spanish cedar.

+ Tree Species

Cedrella odorata

+ Tree Family

Meliaceae

+ Ecology

American cedar is native to South America, and West Indies. There are 9 species of American Cedrella, a subgroup of the commercial mahoganies. The Latin name means the "fragrant little cedar" and the aromatic chemical is a strong insect repellent. This tree is the most important timber for construction in tropical America. In Uganda it grows well in the warm and hot moist climates around Lake Victoria zone and in Western Region near Fort Portal. In Kampala, Cedrella odorata is found along Hajji Musa Kasule road, Sir Apollo Kaggwa road, Kanjokya Street, Upper Kololo terrace among others.

+ Description

An upright usually evergreen tree 20-35 m with a rounded crown which may have a large bole and slight buttresses in mature specimens. The bitter garlic-onion smell in wood, bark, crushed flowers and leaves is characteristic.

BARK: grey-brown, becomingthick, rough and furrowed, inner bark light brown-pink. Twigs have raised lenticel dots and large, rounded leaf scars.

LEAVES: pinnate, compound to 60 cm long with 10-22 pairsstalked leaflets, long oval, each with long pointed tips and aone-sided rounded base, to a thin stalk, 10-15 cm long, shinyabove.

FLOWERS: in large loose terminal sprays to 30 cm, eachflower yellow-green, and the calyx cup-like, very small, all parts infives.

FRUIT: leathery brown capsules to 3.5 cm, rounded bothends, dotted with paler lenticel dots, hanging on the tree, openinginto 5 sections to release very many tiny seeds, winged at oneend.

+ Uses

Medicine: roots, bark, leaves, flowers, trunk, shavings of the wood, seeds, an oil from the seed. http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php id=Cedrela+odorata, http://www.worldagroforestry.org/treedb/AFTPDFS/Cedrela_odorata.PDF

It supplies an excellent timber. The best known use of cedar timber is for cigar boxes, but it is also used for light construction, mouldings, cabinets, furniture, panelling, boxes, exterior joinery, weather boards, louvred doors, boat building (especially racing boats), canoes, musical instruments, turnery, matchboxes, household implements, face veneer and plywood.

Lower grades are suitable for crates, fencing and animal pens.

The repellent smell of the wood to insects makes it particularly suitable for the manufacture of clothing chests and wardrobes. http://www.worldagroforestry.org/treedb/AFTPDFS/Cedrela_odorata.PDF

The bark has been used for making twine.

It provides firewood and charcoal.

Agroforestry: provides bee forage (Apiculture), an excellent choice for use in reforestation project, provides shade or shelter and can act as a windbreak in courtyard gardens and in cocoa and coffee plantations.

An ornamental tree

+ Propagation

Seeds, wildings.

+ Management

Fast growing. Pruning is not required when grown as a stand but early weeding is essential. Shade and avenue trees have many low branches and spreading crowns.

+ Remarks

A tree planted in Uganda in 1933 was 35 m tall by 1953, a growth rate of 1.75 m per annum: It has a mahogany-like timber which is durable, insect resistant, and strong, easily worked and takes a smooth polish. The sapwood is pale brown and the heartwood light brown to red-brown with prominent growth rings.However, growth stresses may cause severe end splitting of logs and warping and splitting during saw milling.C. odorata is highly susceptible to Hypsipyla attack; therefore it is recommended that trees be planted in mixed plantations, for example with Leucaena leucocephala, Cordia spp., or Anthocephalus chinenesis or under the light shade of trees such as Eucalyptus delgupta. http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php id=Cedrela+odorata



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