Knoppiesdoring (Senegalia Nigrescens) is part of the acacia family and produces a great braai wood, sold in 10kg boxes or hessian bags. Its a deciduous, medium to large sized tree which occurs throughout the Kruger National Park in rocky areas and on well drained soils. The wood is drought- and termite-resistant.The knob thorn is a deciduous thorn tree that grow upright between 6-18 meters in height. It has a straight single trunk which branches out high up. It has a spares, round and relatively narrow canopy but does present a wide and rounded crown in older mature specimens. There are woody knobs on the trunks of young trees and young branches of older mature trees. The leaflet is large for an acacia giving the impression of a butter-fly style leaf.The trunk can reach diameter of 0.75 m in older mature specimens. The thorns of the Knobthorn are set out in pairs below the leaves. The leaf consists of 2 or 3 pairs of pinnae (primary divisions of a compound leaf) with 1 or 2 pairs of leaflets per pinna. The leaves are twice compound, opposite leaves and have a pale green leaf that are round with a smooth margin.Knobthorn trees are the host of hole-nesting bird species and the larvae of the dusky charaxes butterfly. The knobs of the tree are reputed to have medicinal properties from pain relief to healing eye-infections as well as breast enhancement and aphrodisiac formulas.The wood of the Knob Thorn is very hard and drought, termite-resistant but is sensitive to frost. The wood is also used for fence posts, walling sticks and fighting sticks known as a “knob-kirrie”.Like the Leadwood the Knob thorn is a very good quality firewood that produces long burning coals with a hot flame
