Importance Of Khaya Grandifoliola

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Khaya grandifoliola, which is also known as African mahogany, Benin Mahogany, Large-leaved Mahogany, or Senegal Mahogany is a species of plant that belongs to the Meliaceae family. It is found in Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Sudan, Togo, and Uganda. Occurring in more or less the transitional zone between savanna and closed forests, but Khaya grandfoIiola trees are predominant in the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria(Samuel 2012 ) . It is locally recognized in Nigerian local dialects as “madachi”, “oganwo”, “male”, “ono” and “dalchi” (Isa 2014; Roger Blench 2007). According to Samuel 2012, Khaya grandifoliola thrives in moist soils, but the moist soils must well drained soils. It grows up to …show more content…

Due to the vulnerability of the young trees to the attacks of shoot borers, the form of the young trees is often poor. With time the trunk rapidly gets bigger when selective thinning is carried out (Dupluy and Koau 1993).

2.3 The Economic importance of Khaya grandifoliola

The heart wood of Khaya grandifoliola is reddish-brown in colour, it is durable and has a fine and fairly regular grain; Khaya grandifoliola also known as African mahogany is easy to work on but it is to impregnate. The wood produced from this species can be used for high quality cabinet work, ship construction and furniture and interior finishing (Dupuy and Koua 1993). This correlates with Isa (2014), who stated that the timber got from Khaya grandifoliola is a durable wood species with high strength-to-weight ratio and it also possess many structural and aesthetic properties. He went ahead to state that the K. grandifoliola is resistant to termite attack and can be conveniently used for all construction purposes. Common places it is used in construction are rafter, wall plate, beam, facial, door, windows and poles (Isa 2014). Khaya grandifoliola is also suitable for fuel wood and for the production of charcoal (Samuel 2012).

2.4 Social importance of Khaya

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