African locust bean
Parkia filicoidea

Family: Fabaceae

What it is like

A deciduous tree up to 30-35 m tall. It has a spreading flat crown. The trunk has small rounded buttresses. The bark is scaly or smooth and grey to yellow brown. The bark becomes dark and cracked with age. If the bark is cut it has an orange coloured resin. The leaves are feathery. A leaf is made up of 6-9 pairs of leaflets each divided into 16-24 pairs of smaller leaflets. These are about 2 cm long and 5-8 mm wide. The flowers are small in bright red club shaped heads. These hang down on stalks 30 cm long. The flower heads are up to 8 cm long. The fruit are pods which hang down in clusters. They are dark brown to purple. They are 30-60 cm long and 2 cm wide with their stalk. The pod is narrowed slightly between the seeds. The seeds are red brown in a dry mealy pulp. The pulp is yellow. The pulp is edible.

26% protein in seeds. Rich in calcium, Also as Mimosaceae.

Where it is found

A tropical and subtropical tree of lowland rainforests. It grows in Africa in forests near streams. It occurs in subhumid and humid places with a rainfall between 950 and 1750 mm annually. It grows between 250-1,500 m above sea level. It can grow in arid places.

Countries/locations it is found in

Africa, Angola, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, CAR, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, East Africa, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Southern Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, West Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

How it is used for food

The pods are eaten cooked. The pulp in the pods is eaten. The seeds are boiled and fermented then eaten. This has a strong smell but is removed by frying or roasting. The seeds can also be powdered and used for flavouring soups and rice dishes. The leaves are cooked as used as a vegetable. The seeds are pressed for cooking oil.

Edible parts

Seeds, pulp of pod, leaves, nectar, vegetable

How it is grown

Plants can be grown from seed. To extract the seed the pod is crushed then the seed removed from the pulp. Before sowing the seed they should be boiled briefly then alowed to cool and soaked for 12 hours.

In Tanzania mature fruit are collected from January to April.

Its other names

Local names

Durumi, Iseha, M'kundi, Micunti, Mkunde, Mkundi, Mnienzi, Mnyesa, Mucunti, Mucuti, Muindi, Musyepwa, Mwensa, Nkundi, Skapya

Synonyms

Parkia hildebrandtii Harms; Parkia busei Harms;