Species
+

Senegalia galpinii (Burtt Davy) Seigler & Ebinger

Mokgapa, Molopa, Monkey Acacia, Monkey-thorn

Climate known 30 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

About the genus · Senegalia

Senegalia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the Mimosoid clade. Until 2005, its species were considered members of Acacia. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Senegalia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(Burtt Davy) Seigler & Ebinger
Native to
Tanzania, Angola, Malawi +6
Wild records
179 in range· 74 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jan, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
600mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jan 122 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 600 mm a year, wettest January at 122 mm, driest July at 3 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 3.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Acacia galpinii Burtt Davy; Acacia somalensis Brenan; Acacia trispinosa Marloth & Engl.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (491 mm of 600 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.3 °C against a yearly mean of 20.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 600 mm a year, wettest January at 122 mm, driest July at 3 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

600 mm a year at the habitat, 491 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 122 mm, driest July at 3 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 445 mm to 831 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 3.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 3.5 °C, the absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 6 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.2 °C to 11.9 °C), warmest day 28.9 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 47 to 57% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 21 °C in Jun to 29 °C in Jan; mean night from 7 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 600 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 137 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost39.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 26–43RH 47–57 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 137 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 26–3129 / 26–3128 / 25–3026 / 22–2923 / 20–2721 / 18–2521 / 18–2524 / 21–2828 / 25–3229 / 25–3329 / 25–3329 / 26–32
Night °C19 / 16–2118 / 16–2117 / 14–2014 / 11–1810 / 8–158 / 5–127 / 4–129 / 7–1412 / 10–1715 / 12–2017 / 14–2118 / 15–21
Rain mm122 / 86–17197 / 74–16775 / 53–11333 / 20–4510 / 4–166 / 2–103 / 0–85 / 0–1011 / 2–1941 / 18–7386 / 57–106111 / 78–154
DLI43 / 38–4340 / 36–4136 / 35–3832 / 31–3629 / 28–3326 / 25–3027 / 26–3132 / 31–3739 / 36–4342 / 38–4542 / 39–4443 / 38–44
RH %57 / 54–6357 / 54–6356 / 53–6254 / 52–6051 / 49–5751 / 49–5549 / 47–5448 / 45–5447 / 42–5451 / 45–5653 / 50–5856 / 54–62

Each figure is the median across the 137 grid cells holding the 177 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2290:4144 (-24.525, 27.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 137 distinct grid cells holding the 177 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2290:4144 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -24.50_27.500, lapse-corrected -206 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 905 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTanzania, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Northern Provinces
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-25.539, 28.445 · in the densest population, 81 records (45% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 179 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 74 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 23 km away. 40 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 179 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Senegalia galpiniiSenegalia galpiniiSenegalia galpiniiSenegalia galpiniiSenegalia galpiniiSenegalia galpiniiSenegalia galpiniiSenegalia galpinii

Photographs: (c) Hildegard Klein, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) alanbedfordshaw, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Manuel R Popp, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Senegalia galpinii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Effect of Soil Type: Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Phytochemicals in Some Browse Species Leaves Found in Savannah Biome of South Africa
Humbelani Silas Mudau, Hilda Kwena Mokoboki, Khuliso Emmanuel Ravhuhali, Zimbili Mkhize (2022) · Molecules
OVERCOMING SEED DORMANCY OF SENEGALIA GALPINII AND VACHELLIA ROBUSTA THROUGH SCARIFICATION PRE-SOWING TREATMENTS
Amantle BOTUMILE, Demel Teketay, Witness Mojeremane, Thembinkosi Mathowa (2020) · The Journal Agriculture and Forestry
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 15 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.