# Gum arabic tree (Senegalia senegal)

> A small, deciduous, flat-topped thorn tree to about 15 m (usually much smaller) with hooked thorns in threes and creamy flower spikes. Its tapped bark yields gum arabic, the food and pharmaceutical thickener that is Sudan's and the Sahel's great export, and it fixes nitrogen and holds sand dunes. It is one of the main species of Africa's Great Green Wall plantings, usually in rotation with crops.

Source: https://treerm.org/trees/senegalia-senegal · Updated 2026-11-08 · License CC BY 4.0

## Facts

- Also called: Gum acacia, Hashab, Kher
- Family: Fabaceae
- Type: Broadleaf, loses its leaves in winter
- Mature height: 8 m; spread 6 m
- Growth: Slow growing
- Light: Full sun
- Water: Low water
- Soil: Deep sandy soils to dry rocky ground, slightly acid to moderately alkaline; intolerant of waterlogging
- Native range: Native across the Sahel from Senegal and Mauritania to Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, south through Tanzania to Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and in Arabia, Pakistan and north-west India.

**Benefits:** Fixes nitrogen, Drought tolerant, Holds soil, Pollinators, Windbreak, Wildlife

**Good for:** Agroforestry, Reforestation, Windbreak, Hedgerow

**Watch out for:** Thorns, Invasive elsewhere

## Care

Plant at the start of the rains and weed for three growing seasons; protect from livestock, which relish young plants. Seedlings are slow (30 to 40 cm a year). Tapping starts at four to five years, in the dry season. Locusts, bruchid beetles and treehoppers damage leaves and seed. Where introduced (Australia, South Africa) it is regarded as a potential weed.

## Where it stands

- **Native:** Eritrea; Ethiopia; India (Native in arid north-west India (Sind, Ajmer) per ICRAF and WCVP); Kenya; Mali; Niger; Nigeria; Pakistan; Sudan (Gum arabic belt); Senegal; Chad
- **Adapted:** Australia (Exotic; ICRAF notes Australia discourages further introduction as a potential weed)

## Sources

- https://apps.worldagroforestry.org/treedb2/speciesprofile.php?Spid=108
- https://apps.worldagroforestry.org/treedb/AFTPDFS/Acacia_senegal.PDF
- https://www.gbif.org/species/3977346