Hagenia
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| iHagenia abyssinica | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Hagenia abyssinica Willd. |
Hagenia abyssinica is a species of flowering plant native to the high-elevation Afromontane regions of central and eastern Africa, with a disjunct distribution in the high mountains of East Africa from Sudan and Ethiopia in the north, through Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tanzania, to Malawi and Zambia in the south.
It is known in English as African redwood, brayera, cusso, hagenia, or kousso, in Amharic as kosso, and in Swahili as mdobore or mlozilozi. It is the sole species of genus Hagenia, and its closest relative is the Afromontane genus Leucosidea. Synonyms include Banksia abyssinica, Brayera anthelmintica, Hagenia abyssinica var. viridifolia and Hagenia anthelmintica.
It is a slender tree up to 20 m in height, with a short trunk, thick branches, and thick, peeling bark. The leaves are up to 40 cm long, compound with 7-13 leaflets, each leaflet about 10 cm long with a finely serrated margin, green above, silvery-haired below. The flowers are white to orange-buff or pinkish-red, produced in panicles 30-60 cm long.
It is generally found from 2000-3000 m elevation, in areas receiving 1000-1500 mm of rainfall annually. It can be found growing in mixed afromontane forest with Podocarpus, Afrocarpus, and other trees, and in drier afromontane forests and woodlands where Hagenia is dominant, or in mixed stands of Hagenia and Juniperus procera.
Hagenia is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Turnip Moth.
[edit] Medicinal uses
Kosso, kousso or cusso is a drug which consists of the panicles of the pistillate flowers of Hagenia. The drug as imported is in the form of cylindrical rolls, about 40-50 cm in length and 5 cm in diameter, and comprises the entire inflorescence or panicle kept in form by a band wound transversely round it. The active principle is koussin or kosin, C31H33O10, which is soluble in alcohol and alkalis, and may be given in doses of two grammes. Kosso is also used in the form of an unstrained infusion of the coarsely powdered flowers, which are swallowed with the liquid. It is considered to be an effective anthelmintic for pork tapeworm (Taenia solium). In its anthelmintic action it is similar to Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas).
[edit] References and external links
- Hagenia abyssinica at the AgroForestry Tree Database (World Agroforestry Centre)
- Eriksson, T., Hibbs, M. S., Yoder, A. D., Delwiche, C. F., & Donoghue, M. J. (2003). The Phylogeny of Rosoideae (Rosaceae) Based on Sequences of the Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS) of Nuclear Ribosomal DNA and the TRNL/F Region of Chloroplast DNA. International Journal of Plant Science 164(2): 197–211 (PDF version).
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.de:Kosobaum
