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Balanites glabra is a spiny shrub or small tree from dry eastern Africa, valued for its wood, fodder and use as a living or dead fence. The sources cover the species, not a commercial cultivar, and it is grown mainly in its native dry range.
Balanites glabra is a species of tree or shrub in the family Zygophyllaceae. This tree is native to Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania.
Balanites glabra occurs in eastern Africa in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and northern Tanzania.
The wood of Balanites glabra is used for carvings. The leaves are used as fodder while the spiny branches make it suitable for use as fencing, either as a live or dead fence. Despite being mildly poisonous the fruits are eaten.
Desert date · Balanites angolensis · Small Green Thorn · Balanites rotundifolia · Desert Date · Balanites wilsoniana
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Balanites glabra by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
