Clausena anisata is a deciduous shrub or small tree, belonging to the Rutaceae (citrus) family, and widespread in the Sub-Saharan Africa, but absent from drier regions. It is also found in tropical and South-East Asia, India and Sri Lanka. It is cultivated in Malaysia and Indonesia. As with other plants useful to mankind its large range of medicinal properties has led to a global distribution and its growth wherever the climate is suitable. It grows in higher-rainfall regions in savanna, thickets, riverine forest, disturbed areas and secondary forest, up to an altitude of 3000 m. The leaves, which are foetid when bruised, give rise to the common name horsewood or the more descriptive Afrikaans common name perdepis, meaning 'horse urine'.

This species is one of 25 in the genus Clausena, first described in 1768 by the Dutch botanist Nicolaas Laurens Burman, and named for the Norwegian clergyman, Peder Claussøn Friis (1545–1614), the translator of the Icelandic historian and poet, Snorri Sturluson.

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