About Moringa ovalifolia Dinter & Berger
Moringa ovalifolia Dinter & Berger is a succulent flowering tree belonging to the Moringaceae family, native to Namibia and southwestern Angola. It is a succulent-stemmed tree that grows in desert and semi-desert areas, occurring specifically on rocky escarpment passes that lead to the Namib Desert. This species grows in an upright vertical form, and can reach a height of 7 meters (23 feet). It is deciduous, and has a main trunk up to 1 meter in diameter. German botanists Kurt Dinter and Alwin Berger first formally described this species in 1914. Moringa ovalifolia was originally classified in the section Donaldsoniana within the genus Moringa, but genetic analysis has since shown that this group is not a natural monophyletic group, and is instead paraphyletic. This species is the dominant component of the woodland called the Fairy Tale Forest located in Etosha National Park.
