Biancaea decapetala, commonly known as shoofly, Mauritius or Mysore thorn or the cat's claw, is a tropical tree species originating in India.
B. decapetala has been introduced to Fiji, French Polynesia, HawaiâÂÂi, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Kenya and South Africa. It has become a seriously problematic invasive species in many locations.
B. decapetala is as a robust, thorny, evergreen shrub high or climber up to or higher; often forming dense thickets; the stems are covered with minute golden hair; the stem thorns are straight to hooked, numerous, and not in regular rows or confined to nodes. The leaves are dark green, paler beneath, not glossy, up to long; leaflets up to wide. The flowers are pale yellow, in elongated, erect clusters long. Fruit are brown, woody pods, flattened, unsegmented, smooth, sharply beaked at apex, about long.
In HawaiâÂÂi, where B. decapetala has the local name pà Âpoki, it forms impenetrable brambles, climbs high up trees, closes off pastures to animals and impedes forest pathways. Trailing branches root where they touch the ground. The medium-sized seeds may be dispersed by rodents and granivorous birds and running water.
Mauritius Thorn has been employed in primate conservation to dissuade apes from entering farmland in West Africa. However, this is no longer suggested due to its invasive nature.