Mulobezi is a small town in the Western Province of Zambia , and the centre of its timber industry. Timber extends into Southern Province with which the town is economically linked.
5-456: Extensive forests of Zambian Teak grow on the sandy soils of the southwest part of Southern Province and the southeast part of Western Province. To extract the timber, the Mulobezi Railway was built from Livingstone in the 1920s, and once extended beyond Mulobezi to the northwest. Today, commercially viable stocks of the slow-growing teak trees are virtually used up and the timber industry
10-539: A dense hardwood, making it difficult to work. Still, it is valued for its termite resistance and resistance to rot and is used for railway sleepers, construction, and furniture making. The commercial timber industry has over-exploited extensive teak forests in some parts of its range (e.g., in Sesheke District , Zambia). However, Baikiaea plurijuga is not listed in the CITES Appendices. Baikiaea plurijuga
15-403: Is a shadow of its former self. The railway still operates a weekly service from Livingstone with Mulobezi as the terminus. This Zambia location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Zambian Teak Baikiaea plurijuga , known as African teak , Mukusi , Rhodesian teak , Zambian teak , or Zambesi redwood , is a species of Afrotropical tree from
20-456: The legume family, the Fabaceae from southern Africa . Baikiaea plurijuga is a medium-sized deciduous tree with pinnate leaves, each with 4-5 pairs of opposed leaflets. They show pink to deep mauve flowers, have yellow stamens, and are clustered in large axillary racemes; they flower from November to April. The fruit are flattened, woody pods with a hooked tip that splits explosively, sending
25-657: The seeds out over some distance. Baikiaea plurijuga is confined to the Kalahari sands, and its dominant woodland is known as Gusu woodland. This woodland grows on the deep, aeolian, and fluvial Kalahari Sands, which have virtually no clay or silt. These sands provide exceptional growing conditions for deep-rooting trees, but the deficiency in clay restricts tree growth to sites holding nutrients in organic matter. Baikiaea plurijuga occurs in southern Angola , northern Botswana , northern Namibia , southern Zambia , and northern Zimbabwe . The wood of Baikiaea plurijuga forms
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