Vachellia abyssinica

Flat Top Acacia (Vachellia abyssinica)
Vachellia abyssinica
An Umbrella Acacia (Vachellia tortilis), right, and a Flat Top Acacia (Vachellia abyssinica), left.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Angiosperms
Class: Eudicots
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Vachellia
Species: V. abyssinica
Binomial name
Vachellia abyssinica
(Hochst. ex. Benth.) Kyal. & Boatwr.[1]
subspecies
  • Vachellia abyssinica subsp. abyssinica (Hochst. ex. Benth.) Kyal. & Boatwr.
  • Vachellia abyssinica subsp. calophylla (Brenan) Kyal. & Boatwr.
Synonyms
  • Acacia abyssinica Hochst. ex Benth.

Vachellia abyssinica (flat top acacia) is a tree up to 16 m tall. Its bark is reddish-brown on older trees. On younger trees it is pale yellowish-brown, peeling off in papery wads. Young twigs are softly hairy. Thorns are aligned in straight pairs at nodes. Leaves are in pinnae pairs of 20-40; the leaflets are very small, up to 4 × 0.75 mm. The inflorescence is arranged in white spherical heads. The involucel is located in the lower half of the peduncle. Seed pods are dehiscent.[2]

Distribution

From Ethiopia southwards to Zimbabwe and Mozambique.[2]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, January 02, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.