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Vachellia erioloba
Also called Giraffe Thorn, Camelthorn, Black Barked Camel Thorn, Camel Thorn Acacia, Giraffe Tree, Transvaal Camelthorn
Camel thorn is a large African tree in the pea family, native to dry sandy savannah and desert edges of southern Africa. It thrives in deep, dry, well-drained sandy soils with full sun and very little water.
Vachellia erioloba is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. This African tree is sometimes referred to by the common names camel thorn, giraffe thorn, mokala tree, or kameeldoring in Afrikaans. The type specimen of Acacia giraffae, proved on closer examination to be a hybrid of V. haematoxylon and the species which would later become known as V. erioloba. The name V. erioloba was therefore proposed for the vast numbers of camel thorn which are not hybrids. Its preferred habitat is the deep dry sandy soils in parts of South Africa, Botswana, the western areas of Zimbabwe and Namibia. It is also native to Angola, south-west Mozambique, Zambia and Eswatini. The tree was first described by Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer and Johann Franz Drège in 1836. The camel thorn is a protected tree in South Africa.
The tree can grow up to 20 metres (66 ft) high.
Vachellia leucophloea · Vachellia nilotica subsp. hemispherica · Vachellia schaffneri · Vachellia tortilis · Vachellia xanthophloea · Roman Cassie · Bullhorn Wattle · Sweet Acacia · Robber Thorn · Sweet Thorn · Babul · Gum Arabic Tree
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vachellia erioloba 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.
