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5 plants worth knowing

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso lies deep in West Africa, in the transition zone between the wetter Sudanian savannas of the south-west and the dry Sahel of the north. Its farmland is a parkland savanna – fields of millet and sorghum dotted with useful trees that farmers deliberately leave standing: shea, néré, baobabs and Faidherbia acacias.

Hover over a plant to see on the map where it grows.

where it grows

  1. Shea tree 1

    tree

    Shea tree

    Vitellaria paradoxa

    Burkina Faso is one of the heartlands of shea butter – the tree is called “women’s gold” here, and not without reason.
  2. Néré 2

    tree

    Néré

    Parkia biglobosa

    Néré seeds are turned into soumbala – a pungent fermented seasoning that Burkinabè cooking is hard to imagine without.
  3. African baobab 3

    tree

    African baobab

    Adansonia digitata

    The baobab feeds and heals – its leaves thicken the sauces served with tô, and the tangy fruit pulp makes a popular drink.
  4. Apple-ring acacia 4

    tree

    Apple-ring acacia

    Faidherbia albida

    A tree that works “in reverse”: it sheds its leaves in the rainy season and turns green in the dry one, so it fertilises fields without shading crops.
  5. Upland cotton 5

    crop

    Upland cotton

    Gossypium hirsutum

    Cotton is woven into Faso Dan Fani – Burkina’s national cloth, which Thomas Sankara made a symbol of the country’s self-reliance.