Balanites pedicellaris Mildbr. & Schltr.

A spiny deciduous shrub or small tree up to 8 m high, multistemmed or with a fluted trunk to 30 cm diameter; branches often spreading and then pendulous to form a rounded crown; bark smooth, sometimes papery and peeling, dark grey, becoming rough or corrugated and cracking into small lenticular sections; branchlets and spines yellowish green to grey-green, becoming reddish brown and eventually grey, at first densely tomentellous, glabrescent.. Primary spines borne at a wide angle to the parent stem, 5–26 mm above the axil, often slightly bent at the nodes, 4.6–14.5 cm long, 2–3(–5) mm diameter at the base, frequently bearing branch-spines (themselves spinuliferous or bearing non-spiniform secondary shoots).. Leaves on the stems, spines and secondary branches; stipules 2–2.5 mm long, narrowly triangular, tomentose, early caducous; petiole 1–9 mm long; petiolules absent or up to 3.5 mm long; leaflets often greyish green, broadly obovate to spathulate, 0.3–4.6 cm long, 0.3–3 cm wide, apex rounded or obtuse to emarginate, sometimes shortly apiculate, base cuneate, thinly coriaceous to thick and sub-succulent, dull, puberulous or tomentellous to glabrescent, the veins usually obscure; foliole 1–2 mm long, eventually caducous.. Inflorescence axillary on the main axis or from spine-buds, the flowers solitary or 2–4(–8) in a fascicle or sometimes in a shortly pedunculate, subumbellate cyme, variably tomentellous to grey-pubescent; peduncle absent or up to 1 cm long; pedicels 0.5–2.4 cm long.. Flowers 5-merous, often sweet-scented, the buds apiculate, rarely rounded; sepals ovate, 3.5–8 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, acute to acuminate, tomentellous outside, the glabrous margin very narrow, caducous; petals spreading or reflexed, green or greenish-yellow, elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 6–9 mm long, 2–3.4 mm wide, sometimes bent at the tip, glabrous within; stamens 10, spreading or spreading-erect; anthers 1.5–2.8 mm long, 0.5–1 mm wide; ovary ± 1.5 mm high but obscured by dense white hairs protruding from the disc before the ovary develops; style 1–4 mm long, usually persisting in fruit.. Fruit elongating only slightly in early development, enlarging evenly to 1.2–4 cm long, 1.3–2.2 cm diameter, becoming ovoid or subglobose, ripening to yellow and then dull orange, often shallowly depressed at both ends, at first finely puberulous, usually glabrescent, thin and usually brittle on the outside, spongy and fibrous within with a thin hard endocarp; seed ellipsoid, cream, up to 1.5 cm long, becoming loose in the mature fruit.

A tropical plant. It grows in tropical and warm places. It can grow in dry salty soils. It grows from sea level to 1,700 m altitude. It can grow in arid places.

The fruit are reported to be eaten after very long boiling. They are boiled for 8-9 hours with the water being changed about 10 times. The inner part of the seeds are cooked and eaten. Caution: Eating fresh fruit causes dizziness and vomiting.

Plants are grown from seeds. It is best to plant the seeds directly in the field.