Acacia ehrenbergiana Hayne

Leguminosae

Common name

Salam

Synonyms

Acacia flava (Forssk.) Schweinf.

Description

Much branched tall shrub or small tree with a green or brown, smooth, shining, peeling bark, resembling that of Acacia seyal with which it has long been confused. Slash green outside and red inside. Thorns 4-6 cm long, white, straight set out in axillary pairs, longer than the adjacent leaves. Twigs glabrous or nearly so. Leaves small with 1-4 pairs of pinnae, each with 8-12 pairs of leaflets. Flowers globose gold-yellow in 1.0-1.5 cm diameter heads. Pods dehiscent narrow to linear, 7-10 cm long, more or less curved-falcate and somewhat twisted, bright-red when young, similar to those of A. seyal. Differs from the latter by its spines longer than the adjacent leaves.

Habitat

Gregarious species common in the topographic depressions and along the water-course network.

Water

This is one of the most drought-tolerant among the common African acacias occurring in the rainfall belts 50-400 mm MAR.

Distribution

Found in the North Sahel and the Southern and Central Sahara. Also found in Sahara, Arabian Peninsula, and East Africa. Its distribution differs from that of A. seyal, as the latter is a typical Sahelian and Sudanian species occurring in rainfall belts between 400 and 800 mm, on fine-textured soils only.

Products & uses

Browsing, often pollarded for stock, producing a second rate edible gum, firewood, fiber (ropes from the bark), medicine (emollient).

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 1957 ; Kerharo & Adam 1974 ; Ross 1979 ; Celles & Manière 1980 ; Baumer 1983 ; Von Maydell 1983/86 ; Geerling 1982/1988 ; Burkill 1995 ; Wickens et al. 1995 ; Vassal 1998.