A correctly identified Milicia excelsa, photographed and labelled at a botanical garden rather than in situ in Ghana — a Ghana-sourced photograph is still to come.
Akan · Ewe · Ga
Odum
Iroko
Milicia excelsa (Chlorophora excelsa)
Where It Grows
Ashanti & Brong-Ahafo forest belt
Odumase — Several towns named Odumase across Ghana take their name directly from this tree.
Approximate — anchored to the nearest known place name.
Explore full map →Why It's Protected
A slow-growing hardwood species whose felling is tightly restricted under Ghana's forestry permit system — mature Odum are a keystone of the surviving high-forest canopy, and losing one means decades before another reaches the same height.
Uses & Benefits
- —Durable timber for furniture and construction
- —Traditional medicine from the bark
- —Shade tree in cocoa agroforestry systems
If you would not let a human being die, why would you let a forest burn? Every material is alive — the tree is not a metaphor. The tree is ancestor.
See the Nipa Dua Foundation's environmental work →