Alstonia boonei

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Alstonia boonei
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Gentianales
Family:	Apocynaceae
Genus:	Alstonia
Species:	A. boonei
Binomial name
Alstonia boonei De Wild.

Alstonia boonei is a very large, deciduous, tropical-forest tree belonging to the Dogbane Family (Apocynaceae). It is native to tropical West Africa, with a range extending into Ethiopia and Tanzania. Its common name in the English timber trade is cheese wood, pattern wood or stool wood^[2] (see Ashanti Empire golden stool) while its common name in the French timber trade is emien^[1] (derived from the vernacular of the Ivory Coast).

The wood is fine-grained, lending itself to detailed carving. Like many other members of the Apocynaceae (a family rich in toxic and medicinal species), A. boonei contains alkaloids and yields latex.^[3]

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Alstonia boonei is a tall forest tree, which can reach 45 metres (148 ft) in height and 3 m (9.8 ft) in girth, the bole being cylindrical and up to 27 m (89 ft) in height with high, narrow, deep-fluted buttresses. On the Plateaux Batekes in Congo (Kinshasa) these trees have greatly swollen bases like those of the Bald Cypress and Water Tupelo.^[4] The leaves are borne in whorls at the nodes, the leaf shape is oblanceolate, with the apex rounded to acuminate and the lateral veins (see Leaf#Venation) prominent and almost at right angles to the midrib. The flowers are yellowish-white and borne in lax terminal cymes. The fruits are pendulous, paired, slender follicles up to 16 centimetres (6.3 in) long, containing seeds bearing a tuft of silky, brown floss at either end to allow dispersal by the wind. The latex is white and abundant.