Maerua crassifoliaSarh Tree

The Maerua crassifolia, commonly known as the Sarh Tree, is a small evergreen tree of the Sahel, the Sahara margins and Arabia, holding a dense rounded crown of small, thick, grey-green leaves on a low crooked trunk. Clusters of pale greenish white flowers with prominent stamens appear through the cooler months.

It is one of the few genuinely evergreen native trees of the arid zone, keeping full cover through the dry season when everything around it has dropped its leaves. Specifiers use it for native shade, restoration on hard ground and heritage planting.

Specifications

• Height3 to 6 metres, occasionally to 10 metres in favourable wadi positions
• Width3 to 6 metres
• Native toThe Sahel and Sahara margins, north east Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant
• FoliageSmall, thick, grey-green leaves held densely in a rounded crown; evergreen through the dry season
• Growth rateSlow

Conditions

• SoilPrefers sandy, gravelly and stony soils with free drainage; tolerates poor, shallow and alkaline ground
• LightFull sun
• WaterVery low; deeply drought-tolerant, holding evergreen foliage on natural rainfall alone
• ClimateThrives in hot arid and semi-arid regions with very low rainfall

Additional Features

• FormDense, low, rounded crown on a crooked short trunk, giving genuine shade at small scale
• FlowersClusters of pale greenish white flowers with prominent stamens, carried through the cooler months
• UsesNative shade planting, restoration on hard stony ground, heritage and desert character landscapes, livestock shade
• SpacingPlant 5 to 7 metres apart for an open native stand
• Low MaintenanceRequires no routine pruning or irrigation once established
• Pest ResistanceFree of significant pest and disease problems
• Drought ToleranceExceptionally high, remaining evergreen through drought that defoliates every neighbouring species
• Wildlife AttractionFoliage is browsed heavily and the dense crown gives nesting and roosting cover
• Cultural SignificanceA long-valued shade and browse tree across the Sahel and Arabia, protected in many traditional systems

The Sarh Tree keeps its leaves when nothing else does, and that alone makes it worth a place in an arid native scheme.