Acacia ataxacantha DC.

Leguminosae

Common names

Flamethorn, vlamdoring

Description

A scrambling shrub or climber with long slender branches, resembling A. macrostachya, yellow-brown bark, with light brown slash. Young shoot puberulous or pubescent, later glabrous or glabrescent, spotted with whitish lenticels. Hooked, claw shaped prickles recurved backward irregularly dispersed on stem and branches, not axillary, about 1 cm long. Leaves bipinnate, 5-15 cm long with 8-15 pairs of pinnae, 20-40 pairs of linear sub-falcate leaflets, rachis 8-15 cm long with a substipulate gland near the base. Flowers 4-8 cm long, dense, subsessile in axillary white spikes. Pods thin, flattened, linear, not reticulate, 6-10 cm long x 1-2 cm wide, purplish brown when mature.

Habitat

Occasionally forming dense thickets at the Sahelian-Sudanian ecozones border, particularly in post-clearing successions, often associated with Combretum micranthum. Often located on termitaria, and particularly on shallow hardpans.

Water

Common along water courses with a favourable water supply.

Soil

Found on shallow iron or lateritic hardpans, with a silty to loamy surface layer.

Distribution

Southern Sahel and Sudanian ecozones. Also common in East and South Africa semi-arid lands.

Products & uses

Palatable but lightly browsed, ignored by equines, much used for making impenetrable live fences. Long, straight shoots used as walking sticks, bows, poles. Bark used for ropes. Ethno-medicine against syphilis, boils, helminthiasis and wound treatment, headache, toothache, respiratory diseases.

Links for the genus:

• The WattleWeb: Acacias from A-Z
• Seed treatment and inoculation: Instructions for acacias and other NFT (Nitrogen Fixing Trees)
• Sustainable livestock production: Indigenous knowledge in utilization of local trees and shrubs in central Tanzania

References

Brenan 1957a ; Touzeau 1973 ; Kerharo & Adam 1974 ; Giffard 1974a ; Berhaut 1975 ; Ross 1979 ; Geerling 1982/88 ; Von Maydell 1983/86 ; Burkill 1995 ; Vassal 1998.