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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
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Plant · P-926
Pygeum
Prunus africana
Pygeum is a fast-growing evergreen canopy tree of African highland forests, prized above all for bark extract used worldwide to treat benign prostatic enlargement, alongside traditional uses for fever, stomach ailments and appetite. It needs full sun and grows best in forest gaps, tolerating light to medium soils but wanting reliably moist, well-drained ground with a distinct dry season. Its bark has historically been harvested by stripping living trees, which has driven wild populations into decline and makes alternating-strip or plantation harvest the sustainable route to the same yield. Its zone rating reflects the cool high-elevation forests of its native range rather than latitude, and reads best as an elevation-equivalent guide rather than a strict latitude hardiness figure.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 10–12
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate · Moist
Vertical layer
Canopy- Soil pH
- 5–7
- Plant type
- Evergreen Tree
- Mature height
- 32.8–80 ft
- Mature spread
- 32.8–65.6 ft
- Plant spacing
- 32.8 ft
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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