Annickia affinis (Exell) Versteegh & Sosef
Tree, up to (2.5-)30 m tall; bole cylindrical; bark smooth, grey-brown, striate, mottled grey, silver and black; young shoots glabrescent, green, older ones black; internodes 0.2-3.9 cm long. Indumentum of single, bifid and fasciculate hairs, 0.1-0.6 mm long. Leaves: petiole 2-8 mm long, sparsely pubescent; leaf-blade narrowly elliptic to obovate, 3.5-26 cm long, 1.5-9.5 cm wide, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, base narrowly cuneate to shortly attenuate, apex gradually acuminate to acute; lateral nerves 8-13 pairs; upper surface glossy dark green when fresh, in sicco grey-brown to almost black, midrib with a few hairs of 0.1 mm long at the base; lower surface dull, pale green when fresh, in sicco greenish brown to deep brown, pubescent, with simple or bifid hairs directed towards the leaf apex, hairs short, 0.1 mm long, sometimes alternating with longer hairs of 0.2-0.6 mm long. Flowers with a strong apple scent; pedicel 0.7-1.4 cm long (strongly thickening and stretching to 2.7 cm in fruit), tomentose; bracteoles ovate, acuminate, 4 mm long, 2 mm wide, tomentose outside, inside glabrous, caducous; sepals triangular, acute, 7 mm long, 4 mm wide, outside tomentose, inside glabrous, caducous; petals ovate, acute, 1.5-3.3 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm wide, outside puberulous, greenish yellow when fresh, inside greenish yellow when fresh, turning brown with age, with a thin line of indumentum on the inversely Y-shaped ridge; stamens 110-175, 2-3.5 mm long, when fresh whitish at the base, pale dull pinkish towards the apex; carpels 35-70, 3-4 mm long, pubescent, hairs 0.1-0.3 mm long. Fruit: stipes 1.0-4.0 cm long, pale green, turning red at maturity, with a few hairs; monocarps 3-34, ellipsoid to obovoid, sometimes mucronate, 2.0-3.5 cm long, 0.9-1.4 cm in diameter, fleshy, green turning deep purple to almost black at maturity, brown to black when dry, sparsely puberulous and glabrescent.
A. chlorantha and A. affinis are distinguished as two different species. A. chlorantha being the rarer species, many collections have been identified as A. chlorantha, while they represented A. affinis. The three most obvious characteristics in which they differ are as follows. The midrib on the upper leaf-surface of A. chlorantha is usually pilose (at least at base, rarely glabrous), whereas that of A. affinis is glabrous. The lower leaf surface of A. chlorantha has few simple hairs pointing in all directions and besides that a lot of small bifid or trifid hairs, while that of A. affinis has predominantly simple hairs that point towards the leaf apex. Finally, the hairs on the carpels and young fruits of A. chlorantha are 0.3-0.8 mm long, those of A. affinis are only 0.1-0.3 mm.
The description of the fruit is based on young fruits only. However, derived from other species with young and mature fruits, the shape of the fruits and structure of the stipes is not expected to change a lot when the monocarps reach maturity. The sizes of the monocarps may be slightly larger in mature fruits.
A typical representative of the Lower Guinean centre of endemism within the Guineo-Congolian Region, occurring in Lower Guinea from southern Nigeria to western Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cabinda (Angola)
A. affinis is a common species found in primary, secondary and degraded rain forest, mostly in the understorey, on steep slopes to level land and swamps, at 50-650 m altitude.
The bark is used for the construction of native houses and to make straps for carrying baskets. It also contains a dye and is used as a malaria prophylaxis.