Sterculia
Sterculia africana
The highly distinctive appearance of the seeds around the edges of the fruit sections gives this species its English name of tick tree. One of its local names is mhozya.
Usually this is a quite small tree of open miombo woodland in Tanzania. It is native to southern Africa as far north as Tanzania. The tree frequently branches low down. Its yellow flowers and papery bark resemble S. quinqiloba. However the two can be separated as this species has leaves only 12cm long, frequently branches low down and the seeds look like bluish grey ticks.
Its timber is not used, but the tree provides quality bark rope.
Sterculia appendiculata
Locally this species is known as mkunya and mkude. This is a huge tree up to 40m tall, with a yellow buttressed trunk. It is often is left when wooded thicket is cleared for farming. Juveniles can be differentiated from S. quinqiloba and S. africana by the leaves, which are over 20cm long and are not hairy underneath (are glabrous). This species has no important uses and it is not a timber tree.
Sterculia quinquiloba
This species is called the Egyptian plane tree due to the close resemblance of its bark, crown and leaves to the plane tree that is widely planted in temperate countries. The Swahili name is mlipadeni.
It is a medium-sized, single-stemmed tree of tall miombo woodland. The attractive, smooth papery that peels off to reveal young green bark that changes colour to pink and white then grey as it ages. Slashing the bark reveals the pinkish red fresh wood underneath. The leaves are very large, often over 30cm long with between 3 and 5 lobes, with a leaf stalk (petiole) that is about as long as the leaf. Their underside is covered with soft, pale hairs. In the dry season all the leaves are shed. The flowers are yellow and tiny. They appear in large clusters at the same time as the new leaves. As is characteristic of this genus, the tree bears large woody fruit, which in this species are covered in yellow hairs and break open into five sections. The seeds are dark and are attached around the edges of the sections.
 S. quinquiloba canopy
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 S. quinquiloba bark
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 S. quinquiloba slash mark
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The orange-brown timber is light and the long straight planks this tree typically provides are usually used as rafters. It is an important source of the bark rope in villages used to tie poles together in building construction and to seal sacks.
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