Dichrostachys cinerea(L.) Wight & Arn.

Sicklebusharoma

WFO wfo-0000176871 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Dichrostachys cinerea, photographed by Nick Schaller
fig. a Nick Schaller, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-08 / obs. 195863008
Dichrostachys cinerea, photographed by Mark Liptrot
fig. b Mark Liptrot, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 194698306
Dichrostachys cinerea, photographed by Surabhi Srivastava
fig. c Surabhi Srivastava, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188706945
Dichrostachys cinerea, photographed by Lucky Okpanachi Atabo
fig. d Lucky Okpanachi Atabo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178602447
Dichrostachys cinerea, photographed by Hopeland
fig. e Hopeland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176142707
Dichrostachys cinerea, photographed by Noeleen du Toit
fig. f Noeleen du Toit, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 165762967
Dichrostachys cinerea, photographed by Hopeland
fig. g Hopeland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171929916
Dichrostachys cinerea, photographed by Noeleen du Toit
fig. h Noeleen du Toit, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 159827174

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 54 botanical countries

Regions where Dichrostachys cinerea is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Cape Verde, Caprivi Strip, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, India, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Sumatera, Northern Territory AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesCaprivi StripCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGabonGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLiberiaMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSierra LeoneSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabweOmanSaudi ArabiaYemenIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.MyanmarSri LankaSumateraNorthern Territory Cape Verde
Native distribution of Dichrostachys cinerea, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Cape Verde CVI
Caprivi Strip CPV
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gabon GAB
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Liberia LBR
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Jawa JAW
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Myanmar MYA
Sri Lanka SRL
Sumatera SUM
Oman OMA ASIA-TEMPERATE
Saudi Arabia SAU
Yemen YEM
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 240 in flower of 425 examined

Peak flowering in Nov. Each bar is the share of Dichrostachys cinerea observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 240 of 425 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,933 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 5.0 °C 10.5 °C 20.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.1 °C 30.1 °C 38.6 °C
Annual rainfall 387 mm 727 mm 1,345 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 1 mm 21 mm 142 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,933 research-grade observations of Dichrostachys cinerea that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 56 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Acacia adenostylis Fenzl
  • Acacia cinerea (L.) Spreng.
  • Acacia dalea Desv.
  • Acacia engleri Schinz
  • Acacia kalachariensis Schinz
  • Acacia spinosa E.Mey.
  • Cailliea cinerea (L.) Roberty
  • Cailliea cinerea (L.) J.F.Macbr.
  • Cailliea dichrostachys Guill. & Perr.
  • Cailliea glomerata (Forssk.) J.F.Macbr.
  • Cailliea nutans (Pers.) Skeels
  • Cailliea platycarpa (Welw. ex W.Bull) J.F.Macbr.
  • Desmanthus callistachys DC.
  • Desmanthus cinereus (L.) Willd.
  • Desmanthus divergens Willd.
  • Desmanthus glomeratus (Forssk.) Lag.
  • Desmanthus leptostachys DC.
  • Desmanthus nutans (Pers.) DC.
  • Desmanthus trichostachyus DC.
  • Dichrostachys afra Meisn. ex Krauss
  • Dichrostachys afra Meisn. ex Benth.
  • Dichrostachys arborea N.E.Br.
  • Dichrostachys caffra Meisn. ex Benth.
  • Dichrostachys caffra Meisn. ex Krauss

and 32 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.