An evergreen forest tree whose seeds (kola nuts) are chewed as a mild stimulant and offered as a mark of welcome.
The kola nut tree (Cola nitida, family Malvaceae) is a large-leaved evergreen tree of the forest understorey, generally 9 to 12 metres tall, though some reach 20 to 27 metres. Its trunk can be 1.5 metres across, and old trees develop narrow buttresses. The bark is thick, fibrous and grey or brownish-grey, showing pinkish-red wood where it is damaged. The leaves are leathery, oblong and up to 33 cm long. The flowers have no petals; the calyx is yellow with red nectar guides. The fruit is a star of up to five pods, each up to 13 cm long, which split open when ripe to show the seeds. Each seed is a pair of fleshy cotyledons, white, reddish-grey or brown: this is the kola nut, bitter when fresh and more aromatic as it ages.
The nuts contain caffeine, theobromine and tannin. They have long been chewed to ease fatigue, hunger and thirst, especially on long journeys and hunting trips, and they are used, with those of Cola acuminata, in making cola drinks. The nuts and other parts of the tree are used in ceremonies such as weddings, child naming, the installing of chiefs and funerals, and in traditional medicine.
It is a tree of the hot, humid lowland tropics, usually below 300 metres but found up to 800 metres. It grows best at 21 to 30°C with 1,400 to 2,500 mm of rain a year, and can stand three months or more of dry season. It prefers rich, well-drained soil; young trees need some shade. Growth is slow at first, reaching only 3 metres in four years. Trees begin to bear at 12 to 15 years and can yield 10 to 16 kg of nuts a year for more than 80 years. The seeds are sown fresh, since they die if they dry out, and germinate in two to three months.
Note on sources: the Useful Tropical Plants database gives its native range as Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire east to Ghana; Wikipedia gives Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria.
Sources: Useful Tropical Plants database (Fern, K.); Wikipedia, "Cola nitida".
Chewed to relieve fatigue and suppress hunger and thirst; used traditionally to aid digestion.
The nut is chewed fresh — bitter at first, sweetening afterward.
Breaking and sharing kola nut is a widespread Nigerian hospitality and covenant gesture, offered to guests and used to open negotiations and ceremonies. (This is a well-documented general Nigerian pattern; a Tiv-specific protocol was not independently confirmed.)
A shade-tolerant forest tree that begins bearing after several years and can produce for decades.