Cadaba heterotricha is used to protect soil from wind and water erosion and for sand dune stabilization. 

In November 2021, the IUCN Red List did not include Cadaba heterotricha. Despite this, local farmers and pastoralists in Somaliland are concerned about its declining abundance.

Fici, S. (1993) Cadaba in Flora of Somalia 1: 46-52

Plants shrubs or small trees, uo 5-6 m tall; bark smooth, grayish; young twigs covered with stellate scales. Leaves alternate, petiolate; petioles 4-8 mm long, covered with stellate sales; blades orbicular-obovate, 1.6-3.5 cm lomg, 1.1-2.5 cm wide, covered with stellate scales or glabrescent, bases cuneate, tips obtuse, rounded, or truncate. Inflorescences racemes with stellate-pubescent axes 0.8-2 cm long; bracts linear, 1.6-2.1 mm long; pedicels 0.9-1.6 cm long, densely hairy. Sepals 4, ovate-triangular, 5-7 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, stellate pubescent outside; petals 4, with claws 2-3 mm long and ovate-oblong blades 3-4 mm long; androphores 1.5-2mm long, appendages whitish yellow, 1.1-1.4 cm long, bases tubular, ends oblong; stamens 5 filaments 1.5-1.9 cm long; gynophores 1.8-2 cm long; ovaries spindle-shaped or cylindrical, about 3 mm long, densely glandular pubescent. Fruits cylindrical, torulose, 1.3-3.2 cm long, 0.3-0.5 cn in diameter, densely stellate pubescent, usually on recurved pedicels. 

Cadaba heterotricha grows in acacia-Commiphora bushland on a wide variety of soils at 100-1200 m. The Flora of Somalia states that in grows in regions N1-N3, C1-2, and S1-2, ethiopia, Kenya, Arabia, and Pakistan. 

©Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Reproduced with permission.

Cadaba heterotricha is slender evergreen shrub or small tree up to 5–6 m tall, with smooth greyish bark and young twigs covered with stellate scales.