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Vachellia nilotica; photograph (c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-16

Vachellia nilotica (L.) P.J.H.Hurter & Mabb.

Gum arabic tree; Egyptian acacia; Babul acacia; Thorn-mimosa

Fabaceae · Algeria, Egypt +50

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Vachellia nilotica, photograph (c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vachellia nilotica, photograph (c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vachellia nilotica, photograph (c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vachellia nilotica, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vachellia nilotica, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vachellia nilotica, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) 81 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.5°C
Record low 8.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
38°C
May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
881mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–45DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  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 (the habitat's months, not shifted), neither the cool nor the warm half of the year. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Vachellia nilotica, more commonly known as Acacia nilotica, and by the vernacular names of gum arabic tree, babul, thorn mimosa, Egyptian acacia or thorny acacia, is a flowering tree in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Vachellia nilotica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Vachellia

Vachellia is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, commonly known as thorn trees or acacias. It belongs to the subfamily Mimosoideae. Its species were considered members of genus Acacia until 2009. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the median year's rain (567 mm of 791 mm) falls in July to September, whose mean temperature, 27.2 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 26.9 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

791 mm in the median year at the habitat, 567 mm of it July to September. Wettest month August at 212 mm, driest month December at 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 387 mm to 2,773 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 881 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 791 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: 29 to 45 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.5 °C, the absolute minimum 8.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 15.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 9.5 °C to 22.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 37.7 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.5 °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: 46 to 65% 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 -35 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 Vachellia nilotica through the yearWarmest month May, mean daily high 38 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 15.9 °C; 791 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°43.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER8.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 29–45RH 46–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 218 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 °C29 / 22–3231 / 25–3534 / 30–3837 / 31–4038 / 30–4035 / 28–3931 / 27–3530 / 27–3331 / 28–3531 / 28–3729 / 27–3528 / 24–33
Night °C16 / 10–2318 / 12–2421 / 16–2524 / 20–2626 / 22–2825 / 22–2824 / 22–2624 / 21–2624 / 21–2522 / 19–2419 / 15–2417 / 11–23
Rain mm6 / 0–206 / 0–299 / 0–5812 / 1–13927 / 7–243108 / 25–537211 / 79–502212 / 96–414144 / 52–29441 / 9–32910 / 0–1945 / 0–46
DLI35 / 28–3939 / 34–4242 / 40–4645 / 38–4744 / 34–4836 / 27–4529 / 25–4129 / 24–3933 / 29–4034 / 30–4132 / 29–4032 / 27–37
RH %51 / 34–6048 / 31–6046 / 29–6146 / 34–6451 / 39–6657 / 48–7063 / 55–7065 / 58–7062 / 54–6955 / 44–6850 / 35–6651 / 34–61

Records on both sides of the equator: the 47 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 218 cells that remain: the 185 at least 10° north and the 33 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 218 grid cells holding the 301 in-range records, 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 1528:3638 (13.575, 1.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.5 °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 218 distinct grid cells holding 301 of the 355 in-range records on the northern side of the equator (185 cells poleward of 10° north, 47 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 1528:3638 (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_1.875, lapse-corrected -35 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 207 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, Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Iran, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Myanmar · introduced: Gulf of Guinea Is., Mauritius, Madagascar, Rodrigues, Iraq, Andaman Is., New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, New Caledonia, California, Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest, Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Bolivia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Argentina Northeast · 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 marker9.144, 76.56 · in the densest population, 132 records (24% of those in range)
Doubtfully present inMorocco · recorded by WCVP as doubtfully present: not part of the range records are tested against
Kew's description“scrambling shrub or tree” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 553 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 301 of them in the land cells it reads, of 355 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 430 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 274 km away. 1049 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 198 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 553 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Vachellia nilotica, photograph 1did not loadVachellia nilotica, photograph 2did not loadVachellia nilotica, photograph 3did not loadVachellia nilotica, photograph 4did not loadVachellia nilotica, photograph 5did not loadVachellia nilotica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Indigofera tinctoria Indigofera tinctoria True indigo Photo: CC BY, Murphy TladiColdenia procumbens Coldenia procumbens Coldeniaceae Photo: CC BY, nirjesh gautamLuffa acutangula Luffa acutangula Sinkwa towelsponge Photo: CC BY, Krzysztof ZiarnekBlepharis maderaspatensis Blepharis maderaspatensis Surprise Packet Photo: CC BY, Paulmathi VinodCullen corylifolium Cullen corylifolium Malaysian scurfpea Photo: CC BY, Aadi KulkarniCatharanthus pusillus Catharanthus pusillus Tiny Periwinkle Photo: CC BY, Paulmathi Vinod

Other Vachellia 38 in the reference

Vachellia abyssinica Vachellia abyssinica Nyanga flat-top Photo: CC BY, Edmundas GreimasVachellia albicorticata Vachellia albicorticata Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Silvia TenVachellia aroma Vachellia aroma Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Rocío Esmeralda PoseVachellia astringens Vachellia astringens Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, RAPVachellia bravoensis Vachellia bravoensis Huisachillo Photo: CC BY, Clifton Ladd, C.W.B.Vachellia campeachiana Vachellia campeachiana Boat-spine Acacia Photo: CC0, Sinaloa SilvestreVachellia caven Vachellia caven Roman cassie Photo: CC BY, Karim HaddadVachellia choriophylla Vachellia choriophylla Cinnecord Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldVachellia collinsii Vachellia collinsii Bull horn acacia Photo: CC BY, Eamon CorbettVachellia constricta Vachellia constricta Whitethorn acacia Photo: CC BY, CK2AZVachellia cornigera Vachellia cornigera Bullhorn wattle Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-RodríguezVachellia cucuyo Vachellia cucuyo Fabaceae Photo: CC0, Yolanda M. Leon all 39 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Acacia aegyptiaca; Acacia arabica; Acacia arabica var. arabica; Acacia arabica var. nilotica; Acacia bambolah and 17 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(L.) P.J.H.Hurter & Mabb.
Native to
Algeria, Egypt, Libya +49
Wild records
553 in range · 430 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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_1.875, lapse-corrected -35 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 72 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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