THE EBONY TREE FALLS TO EXTINCTION.

 

The D. crassiflora is a medium-sized, slow-growing tree up to 25 meters tall. It is found in lowland semi-deciduous and evergreen forest, up to about 1000 m in elevation, and tends to avoid the wettest forests. It is not a common tree in natural forests, usually found alone or in a small group of 2 or 3 trees. It is harvested by selective logging throughout its natural range, and the wood is considered the true commercial ebony from Africa. The heartwood, the most famous part of the tree’s timber, is jet-black or very dark brown with black streaks. It is very dense and used for heavy flooring, ship building, vehicle bodies, knife handles, guitar fingerboards and, most famously, the black keys of pianos. The bark and sap of the tree have been shown to have antibacterial and antifungal properties, and they are used in traditional local medicine to help treat a variety of ailments.The D. crassiflora timber has been an important export product from its range countries for years, but volumes have been declining, most likely due to increasing scarcity. Big trees of the species are nearly all gone throughout its natural range, including in remote areas. Little is known about how the species regenerates, but because it is so isolated in natural forests and grows so slowly, it is listed as “Endangered” by the IUCN.

Species Categorized as Endangered (EN).

The Red List Index (RLI) can be disaggregated in various ways: thematic RLIs show trends for subsets of species of particular policy relevance. For example, the RLI for pollinator species shows trends in the status of species that are particularly important for the role they play in plant pollination, while the RLI for forest-specialist species is an indicator of the balance between loss and degradation of the world's forests and efforts to conserve and restore them. Other thematic RLIs show trends for all species (in the groups for which repeated Red List assessments have been carried out) driven by particular factors, such as invasive alien species, to illustrate the balance between the negative impacts and spread of such species, and the efforts to control or eradicate them.