Umbrella thorn

The flat crown of an acacia against the setting sun over the Maasai Mara is the best-known image of the Kenyan savanna.

A thorny tree of the legume family, growing to 4–20 m, with a characteristic flat, spreading crown shaped like an umbrella. Its twigs are armed with pairs of long, straight thorns and short, hooked spines. Its small, pinnate leaves limit water loss, and its deep roots reach the groundwater. Giraffes, elephants and antelopes eat its spirally twisted pods and leaves, and birds such as weavers nest in its crown.

Significance in the country

The umbrella thorn is an icon of Kenyan safaris and a mainstay of the wildlife in its national parks; for the Maasai it is a shade tree under which elders and herders gather, and its pods are fodder for goats in the dry season.

Where it grows

Savannas and dry plains – the Maasai Mara, Amboseli and Samburu in the Rift Valley Province, Tsavo in the hinterland of the coast, the dry areas of the Eastern and North Eastern Provinces, and Nairobi National Park.

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