It is native primarily in West Africa, where it is found in rainforests from Sierra Leone in the northwest, east to Uganda and south to Angola,[2] typically at elevations of 900 to 1200 metres.

Various parts of the plant are used for medicinal purposes, as food, as a source of clothing fibre, as a building material, and as a dye.

[4] The conspicuous flowers emerge while the tree is leafless and are either solitary or arranged in small axillary cymes.

They are glabrous, either rigged or angular, and loculicidal, meaning that they open spontaneously at maturity along the capsule wall in between the sections of the locule.

The bark is burnt to produce a smoke that is believed to drive away evil spirits called alizini in Dagbani.

The abundant thorns present on the bark are burnt and the resulting charcoal is mixed with butter to treat swelling.

A dye can be made from the tannins within the bark, while the cotton-like fibre that covers the seeds is gathered and used as a cotton substitute.