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Outside its natural area It is slow growing and long lived. On calcareous soil The young seedlings furnish almost the only forage for goats and other herbivores during several months of the year and the animals relish the flesh of the abundant fruits. The ejected seeds yield a yellow oil commonly consumed as human food. Among its constituents are four sterols, two methylsterols, and five triterpentc alcohols. The wood is hard, prized locally, and much used for fuel. Excessive exploitation of the tree has stimulated local moves toward conservation and cultivation. Argan seedlings are being grown experimentally at the U.S.D.A Subtropical Horticulture Research Unit, Miami, and by Victor Wynne in Haiti, with a view to trial in semi-arid regions of near-Mediterranean climate. In English greenhouse culture, vegetable propagation has been achieved by cuttings and layers. Despite widespread Interest in edible oils and crops for and lands, the useful argan tree, Argama stderoxylon Roem. & Schult (syn. A spmosa (L.) Mmre), has remained fairly obscure beyond its native range. It is the only species in its genus, a member of the sapodilla family (Sapotaceae), which embraces a number of trees well known for their economic value.
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Mare trunks may be a fusion of several interlaced stems. The rough bark is grooved longitudinally and transversely. The trees grow in dense clumps with a total canopy spread of 30 to 60 m. The branches are spiny alternate, clustered, and simple, the leaves are bright green when young, dark green on both surfaces when mature, conspicuously veiny, oblong-spatulate to oblanceolate, wedge shaped at the base, 2 to 2 5 cm long, 8 mm wide, leathery, hairless, and sessile or nearly so. In the axils of the spines and leaves are small clusters of sessile, greenish flowers about 5 mm wide, each flower subtended by two bracts, the corolla is bell shaped and deeply five-lobed, the five hairy sepals are slightly connate at the base. The five stamens, slightly protruding, alternate with five stammodes. |