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Vachellia drepanolobium
Also called Ant Gall Acacia, Black Gall Acacia, Whistlethorn, Whistling Thorn Acacia
Whistling thorn is a swollen-thorn acacia tree from East Africa, up to about 6 m tall, whose hollow thorns house ants. Sources describe the species, not a cultivated houseplant; it is grown mainly in its native dry woodland.
Vachellia drepanolobium, more commonly known as Acacia drepanolobium or whistling thorn, is a swollen-thorn acacia native to East Africa. The whistling thorn grows up to 6 meters tall. It produces a pair of straight spines at each node, some of which have large bulbous bases. These swollen spines are naturally hollow and occupied by any one of several symbiotic ant species. The common name of the plant is derived from the observation that when wind blows over bulbous spines in which ants have made entry and exit holes, they produce a whistling noise.
Whistling thorn is the dominant tree in some areas of upland East Africa, sometimes forming a nearly monoculture woodland, especially on "black cotton" soils of impeded drainage with high clay content. It is browsed upon by giraffes and other large herbivores. It is apparently fire-adapted, coppicing readily after "top kill" by fire.
Vachellia albicorticata · Vachellia aroma var. aroma · Vachellia aroma var. huarango · Vachellia bucheri · Vachellia caven var. caven · Vachellia caven var. dehiscens · Vachellia caven var. microcarpa · Vachellia caven var. stenocarpa · Vachellia cernua · Vachellia flava · Vachellia haematoxylon · Vachellia kirkii
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vachellia drepanolobium 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.
