How to Grow African Locust Beans UK

Quick Facts

Factor	Value
Soil pH	4.5 - 5.5
Soil texture	Deep, well-drained fertile soils; also shallow lateritic soils, stony slopes and rocky hills
Drainage	Well-drained
Lifecycle	Long-lived savanna tree; first flowering at five to seven years.

Soil & Growing Conditions

Water: Low; 500-800 mm in the Sahel, tolerating far higher, with a 5-7 month dry season

Soil pH range

4.5 5.5

Span reflects genuine variation between the cited authorities, not a single agreed figure.

Harvest & Storage

When to pick: A savanna tree that starts flowering at 5-7 years while still comparatively small. Pods are 12-35 cm with 5-23 seeds; the seed is fermented into the condiment known as dawadawa, iru or soumbala.

African locust bean through the season

Dawadawa

The fermented seed condiment, known also as iru and soumbala. Days of boiling and fermenting turn a hard seed into the savoury backbone of savanna cooking.

The flower head

A dense crimson globe on a long pendulous stalk -- unmistakable, and the reason the tree is easy to spot from a distance.

Against the sky

PROTA describes pendulous flower heads turning salmon-pink as they age.

Hanging in numbers

Trees start flowering at five to seven years, while still comparatively small.

The pods

Linear-oblong, 12-35 cm long, holding 5-23 seeds in a sweet yellow pulp that is eaten or made into a drink.

The leaf

Bipinnately compound, casting the light shade that makes the tree valued in fields.

Kept, not planted

PROTA notes the tree is protected and planted in fields and wasteland across the savanna rather than grown in orchards.

The canopy

A medium-sized tree of 20-30 m at full size.

Old wood

Long-lived, and the wood is worked into implements once a tree finally comes down.

Its own country

Open savanna farmland with a dry season of five to seven months -- the one constant PROTA identifies across its whole range.

What the research guides add

This is a savanna tree, not a garden bean, and the World Agroforestry profile lists the limits it grows within.

• It occurs from tropical forests with high rainfall to arid zones where mean annual rainfall may be under 400 mm. Biophysical limits are altitude 0 to 300 m, rainfall 400 to 700 mm and mean annual temperature 24 to 28°C. (World Agroforestry (ICRAF))
• It prefers well-drained, deep, cultivated soils but is also found on shallow, skeletal soils and thick laterites; it is a fire-resistant heliophyte (a sun-loving plant). (World Agroforestry (ICRAF))
• Pods are about 45 cm long and may hold up to 30 seeds. The seeds are fermented to make dawadawa, a strong-smelling, high-protein food. (World Agroforestry (ICRAF))

Sources for this section

• World Agroforestry (ICRAF), Agroforestree Database: Parkia biglobosa

Section researched and checked on 25 October 2026 by the SoilCommander Editorial Team. How we check facts: editorial policy.

References

1. Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA) - Parkia biglobosa (PROTA)
2. Useful Tropical Plants (tropical.theferns.info) - Parkia biglobosa

2 independent sources are cited for this crop. Where they disagree - soil pH is the clearest case - every figure is preserved rather than averaged into false precision.