Trees or shrubs, sometimes scandent or climbing, rarely undershrubs, unarmed or thorny or spiny
Leaves bipinnate, with leaflets often small and many-jugate, or with petiole expanded in some Australian species into phyllodes, with glands often present on petiole; stipules spinescent, inconspicuous, or occasionally membranous
Flowers in heads, in axillary or terminal spikes, solitary, fascicled, or on panicled peduncles, often sessile, bisexual or sometimes unisexual with few bisexual
Calyx usually present, campanulate, usually (3)4- or 5-toothed or lobed; sepals rarely free
Petals (3)4 or 5, usually united, rarely free or 0
Stamens many, exserted, free or united at base
Ovary sessile or stalked, 2-many-ovuled; style filiform, with small, terminal stigma
Pod 2-valved or indehiscent, variable in shape
Seeds compressed, with filiform to fleshy funicle
x = 13 (aneuploids, high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Acacia Mill.
Miller: [25] (1754)
Harvey: 279 (1862)
Brenan: 49 (1959)
Brenan: 53: (1970)
Ross: 24 (1975)
Ross: 22 (1979)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 900, mostly tropical or subtropical, mainly in Africa and Australia
Southern Africa: Species 46, indigenous, widespread
Several Australian species have become naturalised
References:
BRENAN, J.P.M. 1959. Flora of tropical East Africa. Leguminosae (part 1). Mimosoideae
MILLER, P. 1754. The gardener's dictionary, abridged edn 4. Rivington, London
ROSS, J.H. 1975. Fabaceae. Mimosoideae. Flora of southern Africa 16,1
ROSS, J.H. 1979. A conspectus of the African Acacia species. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa. No. 44
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Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
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