|
Acacia macrostachya Reichenb. ex Benth. |
 |
Leguminosae Bakin gumbi, ciidi, zzamenega
|
Author: Le Houérou |
| Description Sarmentose shrub, occasionally a small tree, much resembling A. ataxacantha, but discernible from the latter by its upright habit, longer, light green leaves, and fewer prickles, slash striated red and white, bark light brown, striated and creviced when growing old. Prickles claw-shaped and recurved, red-brown thinly dispersed on the branches, reaching 1.2 cm in length. Twigs rusty pubescent, crinite in the young stage ; rachis 12-20 cm long, covered with tiny prickles and having a big sessile gland at the bottom. Leave bipinnate, 7-20 cm long with 20-30 pairs of pinnae having 20-50 pairs of leaflets each. Leaflets 0.6-1.0 x 0.15-0.5 cm symmetrical and linear. Flowers cream-colored, 5-10 cm long. Large thin pods, oblong, 7-12 x 1.5-2.0 cm, sub-acuminate at both ends, resembling those of A. erythrocalyx, containing 7-8 flat, circular brown seeds. Often making dense, impenetrable thickets with Combretum micranthum, like its relative A. ataxacantha. Soil requirements are not specific as the species can grow well on the poorest soils, on hardpans, clay, scree, detritus and debris. Common in the southern Sahel from Senegal to Chad and in the Sudanian and Guinean savannas further south, down to Angola. Live hedging, fence posts, fuelwood. The gum is edible but of a poor quality, the seeds are sometimes boiled and consumed by humans, forage value is limited and confined to young twigs and leaves, mature leaves are ignored. Young leaves are boiled for treatment of gastro-intestinal disorders, as anti-helminthic, and as antidote to snake-bite.
Hutchinson et al. 1958 ; Kerharo & Adam 1974 ; Berhaut 1975 ; Geerling, 1982/88 ; Von Maydell 1983/86 ; Burkill 1995 |