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Balanites pedicellaris
Also called Small Torchwood
Balanites pedicellaris is a multi-stemmed shrub or small tree from Sub-Saharan Africa and Arabia, growing up to about 6 m tall, with green spines and small orange fruits. It is a wild dryland species rather than a common garden plant, and it suits hot, dry, free-draining sites.
Balanites pedicellaris is a species of flowering plant in the caltrop family, Zygophyllaceae. It is sometimes referred to by the common names small green-thorn or small torchwood. It is a small tree or shrub from Sub-Saharan Africa.
Balanites pedicellaris is native to Botswana, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe.
The fruit is eaten but is not sought after. The fresh fruits are toxic and have a bitter taste, consumption causes thirst, dizziness and vomiting. An infusion made from the roots is used to treat fever and diarrhoea, the boiled root infusion is frequently added to milk given to children. The root infusion is used as an emetic by the Turkana people. The seeds are cooked and are an important source of food in northern Kenya, particularly in Turkana. The leaves are used as browse for domestic animals while the wood is used for carvings and to make torches.
Desert date · Balanites angolensis · Balanites glabra · Balanites rotundifolia · Desert Date · Balanites wilsoniana
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Balanites pedicellaris 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.
