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Faidherbia albida; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-05-15

Faidherbia albida (Delile) A.Chev.

Apple-ring acacia; Winterthorn; Anatree; Whitethorn

Fabaceae · Algeria, Egypt +42

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Faidherbia albida, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedFaidherbia albida, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedFaidherbia albida, photograph (c) Elias, some rights reserved (CC BY)Faidherbia albida, photograph (c) Elias, some rights reserved (CC BY)Faidherbia albida, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedFaidherbia albida, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 64 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.2°C
Record low 8.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
39°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
551mm
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

Faidherbia is a genus of fabaceous plants containing one species, Faidherbia albida, which was formerly widely included in the genus Acacia as Acacia albida. The species is native to Africa and the Middle East and has also been introduced to Pakistan and India. Common names include apple-ring acacia (their circular, indehiscent seed pods resemble apple rings), white acacia, and winter thorn. The South African name is ana tree.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Faidherbia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the median year's rain (381 mm of 471 mm) falls in July to September, whose mean temperature, 27.3 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 27.5 °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

471 mm in the median year at the habitat, 381 mm of it July to September. Wettest month August at 168 mm, driest months (4 at 0 mm); 6 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 275 mm to 995 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 551 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 471 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 21, 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 12.2 °C, the absolute minimum 8.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.2 °C to 19.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 39.1 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.2 °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: 31 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 +10 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 Faidherbia albida through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 39 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 16.1 °C; 471 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°43.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER8.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 36–46RH 31–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 345 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 °C30 / 17–3333 / 18–3636 / 21–3939 / 24–4137 / 26–4135 / 28–3932 / 29–3631 / 28–3431 / 29–3633 / 27–3734 / 23–3631 / 19–33
Night °C16 / 10–1918 / 11–2121 / 13–2424 / 15–2625 / 17–2725 / 20–2724 / 21–2623 / 21–2523 / 20–2523 / 18–2520 / 15–2217 / 12–20
Rain mm0 / 0–1160 / 0–951 / 0–574 / 0–2314 / 2–7947 / 1–131125 / 1–229168 / 1–28388 / 2–18324 / 4–510 / 0–640 / 0–93
DLI38 / 23–4041 / 29–4345 / 35–4646 / 42–4945 / 40–4843 / 37–4938 / 33–4836 / 31–4438 / 34–4239 / 30–4239 / 25–4037 / 21–39
RH %35 / 33–5732 / 30–5731 / 29–5738 / 31–5848 / 37–6054 / 45–6259 / 53–6462 / 56–6660 / 51–6652 / 39–6138 / 34–5637 / 34–56

Records on both sides of the equator: the 214 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 345 cells that remain: the 323 at least 10° north and the 22 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 345 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (559 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 1533:3652 (13.325, 2.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.3 °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 345 distinct grid cells holding 559 of the 870 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (323 cells poleward of 10° north, 214 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1533:3652 (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 13.50_2.500, lapse-corrected +10 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 246 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, Western Sahara, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Iran, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Saudi Arabia · introduced: Ascension, Cyprus, Yemen, Pakistan · 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 marker10.667, 14.35 · in the densest population, 308 records (21% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1480 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 559 of them in the land cells it reads, of 870 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 864 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 23 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 610 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 1480 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Faidherbia albida, photograph 1did not loadFaidherbia albida, photograph 2did not loadFaidherbia albida, photograph 3did not loadFaidherbia albida, photograph 4did not loadFaidherbia albida, photograph 5did not loadFaidherbia albida, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Elias, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Hyphaene thebaica Hyphaene thebaica Doum palm Photo: CC0, author not statedDalbergia melanoxylon Dalbergia melanoxylon African blackwood Photo: CC BY, Aadi KulkarniBalanites aegyptiaca Balanites aegyptiaca Desert date Photo: CC BY, Karim HaddadBoscia salicifolia Boscia salicifolia Capparaceae Photo: CC BY, i_c_riddellVachellia seyal Vachellia seyal Talh Photo: CC BY, Lucy Keith-DiagneSchoenoplectiella senegalensis Schoenoplectiella senegalensis Spring Onion Clubrush Photo: CC BY-SA, Umar Musa

Names & registers

Also known as Acacia albida; Acacia albida var. albida; Acacia albida var. microfoliolata; Acacia albida var. senegalensis; Acacia albida var. variofoliolata and 8 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(Delile) A.Chev.
Native to
Algeria, Egypt, Libya +41
Wild records
1480 in range · 864 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 13.50_2.500, lapse-corrected +10 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia redirects Faidherbia albida to Faidherbia, this species' genus (Q5429644), which holds one accepted species in Kew's WCVP
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 2026-10-22
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 60 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…