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Vachellia seyal; photograph (c) Philipp, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Philipp, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2022-03-20

Vachellia seyal (Delile) P.J.H.Hurter

Talh; Shittimwood; Thirtythorn; Whistlingtree

Fabaceae · Algeria, Egypt +25

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Vachellia seyal, photograph (c) Lucy Keith-Diagne, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vachellia seyal, photograph (c) Annie Evankow, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vachellia seyal, photograph (c) Annie Evankow, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vachellia seyal, photograph (c) Philipp, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vachellia seyal, photograph (c) Philipp, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vachellia seyal, photograph (c) Denis Bastianelli, some rights reserved (CC BY) 34 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.2°C
Record low 9.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
40°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
517mm
5 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
35–45DLI
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
Wet winters: the rain comes July to September, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Vachellia seyal, the red acacia, known also as the shittah tree (the source of shittim wood), is a thorny, 6– to 10-m-high (20 to 30 ft) tree with a pale greenish or reddish bark.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Vachellia seyal", 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 winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (401 mm of 509 mm) falls in July to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 27.8 °C against a yearly mean of 28.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March.

Rain

509 mm in the median year at the habitat, 401 mm of it July to September. Wettest month August at 173 mm, driest months (4 at 0 mm); 5 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 258 mm to 946 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 517 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 509 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: 35 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 31, 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 12.2 °C, the absolute minimum 9.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 14.0 °C to 18.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 39.7 °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: 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 +19 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 seyal through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 40 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 16.6 °C; 509 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°42.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 35–45RH 32–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 574 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 / 27–3434 / 29–3638 / 30–3940 / 32–4139 / 33–4137 / 31–3933 / 29–3631 / 29–3533 / 29–3636 / 31–3835 / 28–3632 / 28–34
Night °C17 / 14–1919 / 16–2122 / 18–2425 / 19–2626 / 21–2825 / 23–2724 / 22–2623 / 21–2523 / 21–2523 / 20–2520 / 17–2218 / 15–20
Rain mm0 / 0–30 / 0–21 / 0–155 / 0–4825 / 1–9354 / 8–129134 / 39–201173 / 75–25194 / 38–16323 / 8–590 / 0–60 / 0–2
DLI38 / 34–4041 / 39–4345 / 42–4645 / 41–4843 / 39–4842 / 36–4637 / 32–4335 / 31–4139 / 34–4240 / 38–4139 / 36–4037 / 33–38
RH %35 / 33–4432 / 30–4432 / 29–4838 / 31–5346 / 36–5752 / 43–6058 / 51–6462 / 55–6660 / 51–6549 / 40–5937 / 34–5036 / 34–46
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 574 grid cells holding the 670 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 1542:3597 (12.875, -0.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.9 °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 574 distinct grid cells holding 670 of the 670 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1542:3597 (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 13.00_0.000, lapse-corrected +19 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 303 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, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Zambia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen · introduced: Texas, Florida, Honduras · 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 marker13.45, -0.033 · in the densest population, 476 records (32% of those in range)
Doubtfully present inMauritania · recorded by WCVP as doubtfully present: not part of the range records are tested against
Kew's description“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 1490 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 670 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1373 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 24 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 820 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 1490 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 seyal, photograph 1did not loadVachellia seyal, photograph 2did not loadVachellia seyal, photograph 3did not loadVachellia seyal, photograph 4did not loadVachellia seyal, photograph 5did not loadVachellia seyal, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Lucy Keith-Diagne, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Annie Evankow, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Philipp, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Denis Bastianelli, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Guiera senegalensis Guiera senegalensis Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, Attila OláhBalanites aegyptiaca Balanites aegyptiaca Desert date Photo: CC BY, Karim HaddadHyphaene thebaica Hyphaene thebaica Doum palm Photo: CC0, author not stated Ipomoea vagans Convolvulaceae Schoenoplectiella senegalensis Schoenoplectiella senegalensis Spring Onion Clubrush Photo: CC BY-SA, Umar MusaBoscia salicifolia Boscia salicifolia Capparaceae Photo: CC BY, i_c_riddell

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 flava var. seyal; Acacia giraffa; Acacia giraffae; Acacia seyal; Acacia seyal f. seyal and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(Delile) P.J.H.Hurter
Native to
Algeria, Egypt, Benin +24
Wild records
1490 in range · 1373 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; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a herbarium, 1 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 13.00_0.000, lapse-corrected +19 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 55 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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