The African ebony is a medium to large dioecious tree, found in nature extensively in the African continent, and in some areas of the southwestern section of the Arabian Peninsula. Botanists generally classify it as semi-deciduous to evergreen, but its behavior is highly adaptive. As a result it has several varieties and forms. The African ebony is a tall, upright species that usually reaches heights between 15 to 25 meters. It features a very branchy crown with dense foliage, and a buttressed stem that can reach a circumference of more than 5 meters. It is long-lived, as it survives for more than 200 years.
A complex ecological system revolves around the African ebony. It has a fantastic mutualism and symbiotic network with many living organisms, including monkeys, elephants, jackals, birds, and insects. Its survival and success are built on a sophisticated web of win-win relationships that span from the soil to the treetops. The African ebony has a sweet edible fruit that is a favorite food of a wide variety of living beings. It is also famous for its very hard, fine-grained, dark wood, which is fungus and termite resistant. As the French explorers Ferret and Galinier stated:
“The ayé [Tigrinya name of African ebony], for example, requires the most finely tempered tools to be worked. It could be employed very advantageously in the manufacturing of teeth for gear wheels.”
The African ebony was introduced into botanical records through the works of three scientists: Georg Wilhelm Schimper, Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter, and Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle. Georg Wilhelm Schimper, the German natural scientist who adopted Abyssinia as his homeland, was the one who provided specimens of the African ebony. He had collected the plant parts from Tchilatcheqené, in the Tekezé valley, Tigray. After gathering the specimens, he dried and pressed them, and shipped them to Germany to his colleague Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter.
Georg Wilhelm Schimper was a German by birth, a naturalist by profession, but became an Abyssinian citizen and aristocrat by choice and lifestyle. He was called “Samber” (a corruption of his last name Schimper) by Abyssinians, who regarded him as a wiseman and a physician. He lived in the Tigrinyaland for over 40 years, from 1837 until 1878, that is from the age of 33 until his death at the age of 74. He was fluent in Tigrinya and Amharic. He married a woman from Adowa, and fathered children from her. Schimper was also a loyal official of Deghezmat (General) Wubé Hailemariam, the ruler of Tigrinyaland and Semien, and was appointed by him as the Šum (Governor) of the district of Enticho in Tigray from 1843 to 1855.
However, Schimper remained a scientist at heart. He maintained a rigorous intellectual and scientific life to the end. He has left behind him unparalleled works that document the natural life of Tigrinyaland and Semien in particular, and that of Abyssinia in general. Schimper’s scientific contributions cover botany, zoology, geology, mineralogy, geography, ecology, meteorology, and ethnology. He discovered hundreds of new plant species (many of them bear his name in their scientific designation). He collected and preserved plant and zoological specimens as well as geological and minerological samples. He produced maps. He kept meticulous records of weather patterns for decades. He wrote down his ethnographic observations, etc. Schimper periodically shipped his collections to European research institutions. He also sent detailed scientific writings to the European scientific community. His work is still today the largest reference for the botanical history of Ethiopia and Eritrea. In addition, Schimper’s contributions to the natural history of North Africa and Arabia—in particular that of the Sinai Peninsula, the environs of Cairo, the Eastern Egyptian Desert, the Algerian Coast, the Atlas foothills, and the Hijaz region— are foundational.
The first to establish the African ebony as a species, and coin a scientific name for it was the German botanist Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter. However, Hochstetter did not publish his investigations on African ebony properly in accordance with botanical regulations. It is the Swiss botanist Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle who finally validated and formally published on it. He included the formal scientific description of African ebony in the 8th volume of the botanical project started by his father, the Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, in 1844.
Taxonomical classification
Based on specimens provided by Georg Wilhelm Schimper and botanical notes penned by Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter, the Swiss botanist Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle wrote a scientific description of the African ebony in Latin, the language of science in Europe at the time. It is found published in the work Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, a massive, 17-volume project which was intended to classify and describe every species of seed plant in the world known at the time. The work is one of the most important foundational texts in botanical history.
The scientific name of the African ebony is “Diospyros mespiliformis”, and its taxonomical classification is as follows:
- Domain: Eukaryota;
- Kingdom: Plantae;
- Division: Tracheophyta;
- Class: Magnoliopsida;
- Order: Ericales;
- Family: Ebenaceae;
- Genus: Diospyros;
- Species: Diospyros mespiliformis Hochst. ex A. DC.
References
Bein, E. and others (1996) Useful Trees and Shrubs in Eritrea: Identification, Propagation and Management for Agricultural and Pastoral Communities. Regional Soil Conservation Unit: Nairobi.
Bekele-Tesemma, Azene (2007) Useful Trees of Ethiopia: Identification, Propagation and Management in 17 Agroecological Zones. RELMA in ICRAF Project: Nairobi.
Candolle, Alphonse de, editor (1844) Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. Pars Octava: Sistens Corolliflorarum Ordines IX. Fortin, Masson et Sociorum: Paris.
Ferret, Pierre Victor Adolphe et Galinier, Joseph Germain (1847) Voyage en Abyssinie dans les provinces du tigre, du samen et de L’amhara. Tome Premier. Paulin: Paris.
Ferret, Pierre Victor Adolphe et Galinier, Joseph Germain (1848) Voyage en Abyssinie dans les provinces du tigre, du samen et de L’amhara: Atlas. Paulin: Paris.
PlantZAfrica. Diospyros mespiliformis. Retrieved from https://pza.sanbi.org/diospyros-mespiliformis
Plants of the World Online. Diospyros mespiliformis Hochst. ex A.DC. Kew Science. Retrieved from https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:322702-1
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McEwan, Dorothea. “Georg Wilhelm Schimper: Botanist and Explorer, Geologist and Mapmaker in Northern Ethiopia 1837 to 1878.” ITYOPIS: Northeast African Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Extra Issue 1 (2015), pp. 11-28.
Wunschmann, Ernst, “Schimper, Wilhelm” in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 31 (1890), pp. 279-281 [online version]; URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd141742585.html#adbcontent
Uhlig, Siegbert, Editor (2011) Schimper, Georg Wilhelm. In Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Volume 4. Harrassowitz Verlag: Wiesbaden.
Gestrich, Andreas and McEwan, Dorothea (Eds.), in collaboration with Stefan Hanß. Georg Wilhelm Schimper – In Abyssinia: Observations on Tigre. Critical Online Edition. London: British Library; German Historical Institute London; Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, 2015. URL: http://exist.ghil.ac.uk:8079/Schimper/