Parkinsonia is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about 12 species that are native to semi-desert regions of Africa and the Americas. They are large shrubs or small trees growing to 512 m tall, dry season deciduous, with sparse, open, thorny crowns and green bark. The leaves are pinnate, sometimes bipinnate, with numerous small leaflets; they are only borne for a relatively short time after rains, with much of the photosynthesis carried out by the green twigs and branches. The flowers are symmetrical or nearly so, with five yellow or white petals.

Parkinsonia africana commonly known as Wild Green-hair tree in English and Wilde Groenhaarboom, Lemoenhout, Lemoendoring, Lemoendoringboom, Thaboom, Waterboom, Wildelemoen or Peulboom in Afrikaans is a South African indigenous species found in the Limpopo, Northern Cape and North West Provinces. Usually it is a thin-stemmed and scraggly shrub with smooth, pale brown to yellow-green bark through which it photosynthesizes Protruding from the bark are straight, yellow-green to pale brown thorns, also thought to aid in photosynthesis. Mostly the leaves are absent and those that are seen are compound, the leaflets being pale yellow-green and tiny.