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Zanthoxylum gilletii; photograph (c) B. Phalan, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) B. Phalan, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2013-02-08

Zanthoxylum gilletii (De Wild.) P.G.Waterman

African Satinwood

Rutaceae · Benin, Ghana +21

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Zanthoxylum gilletii, photograph (c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY)Zanthoxylum gilletii, photograph (c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY)Zanthoxylum gilletii, photograph Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsZanthoxylum gilletii, photograph Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsZanthoxylum gilletii, photograph Dyfed13 at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons 6 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.3°C
Record low 11.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Feb and Mar at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,841mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–34DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, April to June and August to October (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Zanthoxylum gilletii, the East African satinwood, is a tree species in the genus Zanthoxylum found in Africa. The fruits are used to produce the spice uzazi, which is the Nigerian (Igbo language) name of both the plant and the spice. It is native to Central and West Africa, and a close relative of the Sichuan pepper. "Uzazi" usually refers specifically to the spice made from its fruit and pericarp, though sometimes other parts of it such as its leaves are used.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Zanthoxylum gilletii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Zanthoxylum

Zanthoxylum is a genus of about 250 species of deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs and climbers in the family Rutaceae that are native to warm temperate and subtropical areas worldwide. It is the type genus of the tribe Zanthoxyleae in the subfamily Rutoideae. Several of the species have yellow heartwood, to which their generic name alludes. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Zanthoxylum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,247 mm of 1,781 mm) falls in April to June and August to October. The temperature curve is flat, 2.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,781 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,247 mm of it April to June and August to October. Wettest month October at 231 mm, driest month January at 27 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,221 mm to 3,073 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,841 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,781 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.3 °C, the absolute minimum 11.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.3 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 16.4 °C to 22.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.8 °C in March (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -57 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Zanthoxylum gilletii through the yearWarmest months February and March, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 20.3 °C; 1,781 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°36.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 23–34RH 62–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 124 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C30 / 27–3331 / 28–3431 / 28–3330 / 27–3229 / 26–3128 / 26–2927 / 25–2827 / 24–2828 / 25–2928 / 26–3029 / 26–3030 / 27–31
Night °C21 / 16–2322 / 17–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 17–2421 / 17–2320 / 16–2221 / 17–2221 / 17–2221 / 17–2321 / 17–2321 / 16–23
Rain mm27 / 2–19851 / 2–194130 / 45–244180 / 123–245206 / 126–323223 / 32–429159 / 8–461186 / 8–469221 / 60–420231 / 136–367131 / 20–33136 / 3–232
DLI33 / 29–4134 / 31–4333 / 31–4032 / 29–3630 / 27–3426 / 22–3324 / 21–3223 / 21–3426 / 23–3629 / 26–3429 / 27–3631 / 27–39
RH %62 / 40–6964 / 39–6966 / 49–7067 / 59–7168 / 63–7368 / 62–7368 / 61–7268 / 62–7369 / 63–7468 / 62–7468 / 53–7266 / 43–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 124 grid cells holding the 180 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1649:3421 (7.525, -8.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 124 distinct grid cells holding 180 of the 180 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1649:3421 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.50_-8.750, lapse-corrected -57 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 394 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBenin, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cabinda, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-2.101, 11.129 · in the densest population, 221 records (50% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 443 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 180 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 383 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 115 km away. 7 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 263 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 443 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Zanthoxylum gilletii, photograph 1did not loadZanthoxylum gilletii, photograph 2did not loadZanthoxylum gilletii, photograph 3did not loadZanthoxylum gilletii, photograph 4did not loadZanthoxylum gilletii, photograph 5did not load

Photographs: (c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Dyfed13 at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Palisota bracteosa Palisota bracteosa Loko Toawombi Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaHarungana madagascariensis Harungana madagascariensis Dragon's-blood-tree Photo: CC BY-SA, Evert MatermanMusanga cecropioides Musanga cecropioides Umbrella Tree Photo: CC BY, avocatFicus elasticoides Ficus elasticoides Rubber shade tree Photo: CC BY, Erik KristensenClerodendrum splendens Clerodendrum splendens Lamiaceae Photo: CC0, IreneBulbophyllum cocoinum Bulbophyllum cocoinum Coconut Bulbophyllum Photo: CC BY-SA, Bonaventure Sonké

Other Zanthoxylum 31 in the reference

Zanthoxylum acanthopodium Zanthoxylum acanthopodium Rutaceae Photo: CC BY, Jacy ChenZanthoxylum ailanthoides Zanthoxylum ailanthoides Alianthus-like prickly-ash Photo: CC BY, chiuluanZanthoxylum americanum Zanthoxylum americanum Toothache tree Photo: CC BY, Carter ErtelZanthoxylum armatum Zanthoxylum armatum Winged prickly-ash Photo: CC BY, jimmyZanthoxylum asiaticum Zanthoxylum asiaticum Climbing Orange Photo: CC BY, AparnaZanthoxylum avicennae Zanthoxylum avicennae Chinese Wingleaf Prickly Ash Photo: CC BY, Toby YZanthoxylum beecheyanum Zanthoxylum beecheyanum Rutaceae Photo: CC BY, M108tZanthoxylum bungeanum Zanthoxylum bungeanum Sichuan-pepper Photo: CC BY, Marco MussitaZanthoxylum capense Zanthoxylum capense Rutaceae Photo: CC BY, Shaun SwanepoelZanthoxylum caribaeum Zanthoxylum caribaeum Prickly yellow Photo: CC BY-SA, Janitzio Pech ZúñigaZanthoxylum clava-herculis Zanthoxylum clava-herculis Hercules' club Photo: CC BY, Laura GaudetteZanthoxylum coco Zanthoxylum coco Rutaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 32 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Fagara amaniensis; Fagara annobonensis; Fagara discolor; Fagara gabonensis; Fagara gilletii and 20 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rutaceae
Described by
(De Wild.) P.G.Waterman
Native to
Benin, Ghana, Guinea +20
Wild records
443 in range · 383 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (13 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.50_-8.750, lapse-corrected -57 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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