Vachellia karroo - Sweet thorn

Sweet thorn (Vachellia karroo) is a thorny, nitrogen-fixing evergreen shrub or tree of woodland, wooded grassland and riverine areas across southern Africa, from the Cape north to Angola and Kenya.¹ Its gum is eaten as a confection, its roasted seed is used as a Coffee substitute, and its bark and pods yield tannins and a red dye.¹ It typically grows to around 10 m tall, exceptionally over 20 m.¹

Inputs

• Full sun¹

Outputs

• Human food¹
• Coffee substitute¹
• Medicinal use¹
• Dye¹
• Fibre¹
• Wood¹
• Fuel¹
• Charcoal¹

Type

• Shrub
• Tree
• Evergreen

Functions

• Nitrogen fixer¹
• Attracting bees¹
• Soil stabilization¹

Dimension	At maturity
Height (m)	up to 20 (typically around 10)

Footnotes

1. Vachellia karroo | Useful Temperate Plants ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵