Taxon: Vitellaria paradoxa C. F. Gaertn.

Common names:

• bambouk-buttertree   (Source: PROTABASE ) – English
  
• galam-buttertree   (Source: PROTABASE ) – English
  
• karite-nut   (Source: Conserv. Biol. 1990) – English
  
• shea   (Source: Websters Dict [as Butyrospermum parkii]) – English
  
• shea-buttertree   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – English
  
• sheatree   (Source: Websters Dict [as Butyrospermum parkii]) – English
  
• arbre à beurre   (Source: PROTABASE ) – French
  
• karité   (Source: PROTABASE ) – French
  
• Schibutterbaum   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – German
  
• cárei   (Source: PROTABASE ) – Portuguese
  
• carité   (Source: PROTABASE ) – Portuguese
  
• árbol montequero   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• butirospermo   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  

Economic importance:

• Food additives: flavoring   (source of shea oils fide Blicher-Mathiesen, Econ Bot. 48:236.)
  
• Human food: fruit; oil/fat   (fide PROTABASE; Food Feed Crops US)
  
• Materials: latex/rubber; lipids   (for glue, chewing gum, candles, cosmetics, lotions, medicine-base, waterproofing fide PROTABASE)
  
• Medicines: folklore   (fide PROTABASE)
  
• Non-vertebrate poisons: plant pest control   (fide PROTABASE)
  

More:

View toxicology references for Vitellaria paradoxa from FDA Poisonous Plant Database

View phytochemical data from Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

Distributional range:

• AFRICA
  Northeast Tropical Africa: Ethiopia; Sudan
  East Tropical Africa: Uganda
  West-Central Tropical Africa: Cameroon; Central African Republic; Zaire [e.]
  West Tropical Africa: Benin; Ghana; Guinea-Bissau; Nigeria; Senegal

References:

• Conservation Biol.
• PROTABASE, the information base of PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa) - on-line resource. (PROTABASE)
• Adu-Ampomah, Y. et al. 1995. Pl. Genet. Resources Newslett. 102:37–38.
• Blicher-Mathiesen, U. 1994. Econ. Bot. 48:236. [= Butyrospermum paradoxum (C. F. Gaertn.) Hepper].
• Duke, J. A. 1989. Handbook of Nuts. CRC Press. (Handb Nuts) [= Butyrospermum paradoxum (C. F. Gaertn.) Hepper].
• Encke, F. et al. 1984. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 13. Auflage. (Zander ed13)
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop - on-line resource. (Ecocrop)
• Govaerts, R. & D. G. Frodin. 2001. World checklist and bibliography of Sapotaceae. (L Sapotaceae)
• Greuter, W. et al., eds. 2000. International code of botanical nomenclature (Saint Louis Code). (ICBN St Louis) Art. 9.7, Ex. 2.
• Hall, J. B. & J. R. Hindle. 1995. Epitypification of Vitellaria paradoxa C. F. Gaertn. (Sapotaceae). Taxon 44:409–410. [epitypification].
• Keay, R. W. J. & F. N. Hepper. 1953–1972. Flora of west tropical Africa, ed. 2. (F WT Afr) [= Butyrospermum paradoxum (C. F. Gaertn.) Hepper].
• Keay, R. W. J. 1989. Trees of Nigeria. (Trees Nigeria)
• Markle, G. M. et al., eds. 1998. Food and feed crops of the United States, ed. 2. (Food Feed Crops US)
• Pennington, T. D. 1991. The genera of the Sapotaceae. (Gen Sapot)
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants. (Dict Rehm)
• Turrill, W. B. et al., eds. 1952–. Flora of tropical East Africa. (F TE Afr) [= Butyrospermum paradoxum (C. F. Gaertn.) Hepper].
• Webster's third new international dictionary. (Websters Dict) [= Butyrospermum parkii].

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Vitellaria paradoxa.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Vitellaria paradoxa. Note: Defaults to a search by genus or species epithet if species binomial not found.

Synonyms:

• (=) Bassia parkii G. Don
  
• (≡) Butyrospermum paradoxum (C. F. Gaertn.) Hepper
  
• (=) Butyrospermum paradoxum subsp. parkii (G. Don) Hepper
  
• (=) Butyrospermum parkii (G. Don) Kotschy
  (previously associated with 4 accessions)

Check other databases for Vitellaria paradoxa C. F. Gaertn.:

• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• PROTABASE: Plant Resources of Tropical Africa's (PROTA's) online resource
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.
  Note: Defaults to a search by genus or species epithet if species binomial not found.

Check other databases for images:

• PlantSystematics.org
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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