Trees

African Cherry

Prunus africana

🌳 TreeANX-TREE-0000010

African Cherry (Prunus africana), a medicinal, timber tree of the Rosaceae family.

A tall, solitary fan-leaved palm with notable stands along the Tana River delta and other riverine floodplains in Kenya. Trunks are often swollen mid-height and the wood is exceptionally hard.

Apple-ring Acacia

Faidherbia albida

🌳 TreeANX-TREE-0000002

Apple-ring Acacia (Faidherbia albida), a nitrogen-fixing, fodder, agroforestry tree of the Fabaceae family.

An evergreen tree native to Mesoamerica, now one of Kenya's top horticultural export crops. Produces a nutrient- and oil-rich fruit, most notably the Hass variety.

Baobab

Adansonia digitata

🌳 TreeANX-TREE-0000015

Baobab (Adansonia digitata), a fruit, medicinal, fodder tree of the Malvaceae family.

Black Wattle

Acacia mearnsii

🌳 TreeANX-TREE-0000006

Black Wattle (Acacia mearnsii), a nitrogen-fixing, timber, tannin, fuelwood tree of the Fabaceae family.

A fast-growing leguminous shrub-tree native to Central America, introduced to East Africa in the 1980s-90s and now one of the most widely adopted fodder trees in Kenyan smallholder dairy systems. Produces dense, showy red pom-pom flowers and nitrogen-rich foliage.

An indigenous East and Southern African tree valued for its showy pink-to-white star-shaped flower clusters and glossy dark green leaves. Common in highland forest margins and increasingly planted as an ornamental and shade tree.

The iconic palm of Kenya's coastline, extensively cultivated in Kwale, Kilifi and Lamu counties. A single-stemmed, feather-leaved palm producing large fibrous fruits (coconuts) almost continuously once mature.

Croton

Croton megalocarpus

🌳 TreeANX-TREE-0000009

Croton (Croton megalocarpus), a fuelwood, shade, biodiesel, agroforestry tree of the Euphorbiaceae family.

A distinctive dichotomously-branching palm (unusual among palms, which are almost all single-stemmed), common along the Tana River, in Turkana and other dryland/riverine parts of Kenya. Produces hard, gingerbread-flavored fruit.

A large evergreen tree of East African montane forests with aromatic timber, historically one of the most commercially important indigenous species logged in Kenya during the colonial and early post-independence periods.