The common name of the plant is derived from the observation that when wind blows over bulbous spines in which ants have made entry and exit holes, they produce a whistling noise.

[3] Whistling thorn is the dominant tree in some areas of upland East Africa, sometimes forming a nearly monoculture woodland, especially on "black cotton" soils of impeded drainage with high clay content.

[8] Conversely, whistling thorn also has been considered a weed of rangelands, and a woody plant encroachment species.

[14] Later analysis of the mandibular gland secretion of these ants and of C. sjostedti showed distinct differences in the 28 volatile compounds that were identified.

At the site in Kenya, when large herbivores were experimentally excluded, trees reduced the number of nectar glands and swollen spines they provided to ants.

In response, the usually dominant C. mimosae increased their tending of parasitic sap-sucking insects as a replacement food source.