about certain Arabian plants

[Ibrahim]

I'll try to help. A colleague of mine is of Arabic origin. Hopefully I remember this thread tomorrow.

Edit: And he's a forest engineer.

perfect!

because I now have a long list of unusual tree names: I asked my family, and none of them know. which makes sense, since some of the trees' names are either not used at all, or changed.

well, keep me updated.


EDIT: just to be sure, the tree is indeed from Arabia and/or North Africa.

[HopAlongBunny]

My google-fu failed me :(

The descriptors seem to point to some form of acacia, but there is nothing matching your examples.

[LeftEyeNine]

Could you provide pics of the plant ? I see you have some links above however you said you were not sure.

[Ibrahim]

those are the only known possible pictures. I couldn't find any that are definitely of that tree.

as mentioned, the problem is that names have changed in the last 1,300 years, so it's hard to keep track.

as to it being a bush? well, the dictionary was explicit: it is described as a tree, not a bush (Arabic then and now distinguishes the two).

making matters harder, is that the old name alaa'ah (and particularly the plural, alaa'), sounds and is written too much like aalaa', which means "blessings"...