Guinet (1969) in Pondicherry first proposed separating it into the genus Faidherbia, a genus erected during the previous century by Auguste Chevalier with this as the type species, seconded by the South African James Henderson Ross (1973) and the Senegalese legume botanist Nongonierma (1976, 1978),[7] but authors continued to favour classification under Acacia as of 1997.

[6][7] According to John Patrick Micklethwait Brenan, as written in the Flora of Tropical East Africa (1959), two forms can be distinguished in this region (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda).

[citation needed] In Southern Africa, it is absent from most of the territory, avoiding dry, colder and upland areas or areas of winter rainfall, but it does occur in the eastern Caprivi Strip, the northern Okavango basin, the floodplains of the Linyanti, Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, as well as southwards to Gaborone.

In Zimbabwe, the tree is absent from the highlands and central plateau, but it does occur in Gonarezhou[9] and southwards to the Kruger Park and adjacent lowveld of western Gaza and southern Maputo provinces.

[2] In Asia, it is thought to be native to Yemen and Saudi Arabia in the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, and in the Levant in Israel, Syria and Lebanon.

[5] A population is found in relict groves in Israel (in the Shimron nature reserve, near the community settlement of Timrat, and in the western-most reaches of the Valley of Elah).

[citation needed] Introduced populations are found in Cyprus, Pakistan, and India (Karnataka), as well as on Ascension Island.

[10] The seed pods are used for raising livestock, are used as camel fodder in Nigeria,[10] and are eaten by stock and game in Southern Africa.

[6] They are relished by elephant, antelope, buffalo, baboons and various browsers and grazers, though strangely ignored by warthogs and zebras.

Some 90% of Senegalese farmers interviewed by Felker (1981) collected, stored, and rationed Acacia albida pods to livestock.

[16] The trees' use in farmer-managed natural regeneration of degraded soils throughout southern Niger since the 1990s has been described by one writer as "the biggest positive environmental transformation in the Sahel, and possibly in Africa".

[15] Faidherbia albida is known in the Bambara language as balanzan, and is the official tree of the city of Segou on the Niger River in central Mali.