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Balanites aegyptiaca; photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2023-10-31

Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Delile

Desert date; Soapberry-tree; Simple-Thorned Green Thorn; Simple-Thorned Torch Wood

Zygophyllaceae · Algeria, Egypt +42

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Balanites aegyptiaca, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Balanites aegyptiaca, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Balanites aegyptiaca, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Balanites aegyptiaca, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Balanites aegyptiaca, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Balanites aegyptiaca, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) 80 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.0°C
Record low 8.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
39°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
469mm
4 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
36–46DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A rainy season, July to September, neither the cool nor the warm half of the year. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Balanites aegyptiaca (also known as the desert date, Egyptian balsam and lalob in Sudan) is a species of tree, classified as a member of either the Zygophyllaceae or the Balanitaceae. This tree is native to much of Africa (excluding South Africa, Namibia, Madagascar, Senegal and Tunisia) and parts of the Middle East (from Syria south to Yemen). It can be found in many kinds of habitat, tolerating a wide variety of soil types, from sand to heavy clay, and climatic moisture levels, from arid to subhumid. It is relatively tolerant of flooding, livestock activity, and wildfire.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Balanites aegyptiaca", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the median year's rain (357 mm of 439 mm) falls in July to September, whose mean temperature, 28.0 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 28.5 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March.

Rain

439 mm in the median year at the habitat, 357 mm of it July to September. Wettest month August at 155 mm, driest months (4 at 0 mm); 6 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 176 mm to 1,009 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 469 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 439 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 36 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 30, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.0 °C, the absolute minimum 8.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 44.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 12.6 °C to 19.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 39.4 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 32 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -8 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Balanites aegyptiaca through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 39 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 16.9 °C; 439 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°44.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER8.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 36–46RH 32–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 686 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C31 / 26–3434 / 29–3737 / 32–3939 / 33–4139 / 33–4137 / 31–4034 / 29–3732 / 29–3533 / 30–3736 / 31–3835 / 30–3632 / 27–34
Night °C17 / 13–1919 / 15–2122 / 18–2425 / 20–2726 / 22–2725 / 23–2724 / 22–2624 / 22–2524 / 21–2523 / 21–2520 / 17–2218 / 14–20
Rain mm0 / 0–30 / 0–51 / 0–193 / 0–5316 / 1–10742 / 7–144113 / 37–197155 / 54–25389 / 20–18020 / 2–620 / 0–70 / 0–3
DLI38 / 34–3941 / 39–4345 / 42–4646 / 41–4944 / 39–4843 / 35–4738 / 31–4436 / 30–4239 / 34–4340 / 37–4239 / 36–4037 / 33–38
RH %35 / 32–4132 / 30–4432 / 29–4938 / 30–5444 / 35–5751 / 41–6057 / 50–6462 / 54–6759 / 47–6649 / 37–5937 / 34–5036 / 34–44
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 686 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (910 records in those cells; 8 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1467:3285 (16.625, -15.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 44.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 686 distinct grid cells holding 910 of the 927 in-range records (8 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1467:3285 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 16.50_-15.625, lapse-corrected -8 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 8 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlgeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Western Sahara, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Palestine, Sinai, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen · introduced: Azores, Cape Verde, Dominican Republic, Netherlands Antilles · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker11.685, 2.303 · in the densest population, 618 records (38% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1625 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 910 of them in the land cells it reads, of 927 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1391 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 24 km away. 38 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 698 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1625 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Balanites aegyptiaca, photograph 1did not loadBalanites aegyptiaca, photograph 2did not loadBalanites aegyptiaca, photograph 3did not loadBalanites aegyptiaca, photograph 4did not loadBalanites aegyptiaca, photograph 5did not loadBalanites aegyptiaca, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Ipomoea vagans Convolvulaceae Vachellia seyal Vachellia seyal Talh Photo: CC BY, Lucy Keith-DiagneBauhinia rufescens Bauhinia rufescens Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Sayee GirdhariHyphaene thebaica Hyphaene thebaica Doum palm Photo: CC0, author not statedGuiera senegalensis Guiera senegalensis Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, Attila Oláh Sesbania rostrata Fabaceae

Other Balanites 1 in the reference

Balanites maughamii Balanites maughamii Manduro Photo: CC BY-SA, alanbedfordshaw

Names & registers

Also known as Agialid abyssinica; Agialid aegyptiaca; Agialid arabica; Agialid barteri; Agialid chevalieri and 45 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Balanites roxburghii: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Zygophyllaceae
Described by
(L.) Delile
Native to
Algeria, Egypt, Libya +41
Wild records
1625 in range · 1391 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a herbarium, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 16.50_-15.625, lapse-corrected -8 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 75 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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