The leaves of Dichrostachys cinerea are bipinnate or twice-compound, similar to many African thorn trees species. The leaf size is variable from 4 to 19 pairs of pinnae, each in turn divided into 9 to 41 pairs of pinnules or leaflets. Leaflets are hairy when young and remain so on some trees, not all. Leaves are sometimes fascicled on small spur-branches and even on the spines, which are after all just hardened branchlets. The leaf petiole carries a gland (Coates Palgrave, 2002; www.plantzafrica.com).