Vachellia karroo crown expanding

Vachellia karroo or the common sweet thorn tree (or shrub) assumes a protean variety of guises in different parts of South Africa. Pooley (1993) describes three distinct forms found in different parts of only KwaZulu-Natal, some with soft wood, others hard.

The arid inland and Karoo forms of the tree growing mainly along watercourses are hardly recognisable as the same species as those found in coastal dune forests or African savanna. This lush growth is typical of bushveld sweet thorns near the Crocodile River in Mpumalanga.

The sporadic attacks of improvement hitting upon the scientific community that recently brought change to thorn tree names, may rise again to separate regional forms of V. karroo into entities with beautiful new names.

The sweet thorn presents problems as an encroacher caused by overgrazing of grassland, the use of insecticides that reduce the consumers of the tree’s seed and excessive winter grass fires, an unfortunate kind of sport practiced by some poorly informed people (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Pooley, 1993; Codd, 1951).