Wooden African Ebony Tree – Large Six-Piece Hand-Painted Toy

About the African Ebony Tree

The African ebony, also called the jackalberry, grows across the savannas of Africa, often along rivers and on top of termite mounds, where the soil is loose and holds moisture. Its sweet fruit is loved by jackals – which gave the tree its name – as well as by kudu, klipspringer and other antelope, while elephants and giraffes browse its dense leaves.

The tree belongs to the same family as the persimmon, and its Latin name, Diospyros, means "divine pear". Its wood is so hard that even termites leave it alone, and the dark heartwood of ebony trees has long been used for black piano keys and the black pieces of chess sets.

• Trunk with back crown
• Four crown layers
• Base

Also available as a Small African Ebony Tree. Build a savanna with the Large Acacia Tree and Large Baobab Tree, and add the Realistic Safari Animals.

Assembled tree – Height × Width × Depth: 28.0 × 21.0 × 3.6 cm (11.0 × 8.3 × 1.4 in)

All pieces are shaped from solid ash wood and hand-sanded to a smooth finish with no sharp edges. The crowns and base are hand-painted with water-based paints, the trunk keeps the natural grain of the ash, and every piece is finished with olive oil, which protects the wood against moisture. No plastics, no solvent-based finishes, no MDF, no veneers. Made in conformity with the European toy safety standard EN 71. Small variations in colour and grain are a natural part of handmade production, not defects.

The shady heart of the savanna.

With five crown layers to stack and rearrange, the African ebony is one of the most puzzle-like trees in our collection: children work out which piece goes where and watch the dense crown take shape. Finished, it gives a safari scene a place for animals to gather – and opens stories about rivers, termite mounds and the animals that share one tree.

Inspired by Montessori and Waldorf principles, the ebony tree is simple in form and real in its details, with no batteries, sounds or buttons – the child leads the play.

Solid ash is dense and hard-wearing, and every piece is sanded and painted by hand in our workshop in Romania. Tree by tree, the savanna grows with the child and lasts long enough to be passed on.