Blank questionnaire of ethnobatanical study on Picarlima nitida in Dahomey Gap, West Africa, 2020

Picralima nitida is one of the most important medicinal plant species in Africa. It is a small tree which reaches 4-35 m in height. Its wood is pale yellow, hard, elastic and fine-grained with a high polish. P. nitida bears white flowers (about 3 cm long) with yellowish ovoid fruits at maturity. The leaves are broad and oblong with tough tiny lateral nerves of 14-24 pairs. In West African folk medicine, P. nitida is widely used for the treatment of several diseases. Despite its importance, there is a serious problem of species management. In the typical Guineo-Congolese (GC) region, e.g. Nigeria, it occurs only in the wild under no form of management and is under threat of extinction. In the Dahomey Gap (DG) region, e.g. Benin, P. nitida is very rare and at low density. There is a controversy on the exact distribution areas of P. nitida. There is a need to dispel the ambiguity over the distribution areas of this species and to document the important threats to its conservation. It is the reason that this questionnaire has been used to identified the importance of the species through its distribution area.