Acacia nilotica is native from Egypt, across the Maghreb and Sahel, south to Mozambique and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and east through Arabian Peninsula to Pakistan, India and Burma. It has become widely naturalized outside its native range including Zanzibar and Australia.
description
Acacia nilotica is a tree of the Fabaceae family 5–20 m high with a dense
spheric crown, stems and branches usually dark to black colored, fissured
bark, grey-pinkish slash, exuding a reddish low quality gum. The tree has
thin, straight, light, grey spines in axillary pairs, usually in 3 to 12
pairs, 5 to 7.5 cm (3 in) long in young trees, mature trees commonly without
thorns. The leaves are bipinnate, with 3–6 pairs of pinnulae and 10–30 pairs
of leaflets each, tomentose, rachis with a gland at the bottom of the last
pair of pinnulae. Flowers in globulous heads 1.2–1.5 cm in diameter of a
bright golden-yellow color, set up either axillary or whorly on peduncles
2–3 cm long located at the end of the branches. Pods are strongly
constricted, hairy, white-grey, thick and softly tomentose. Its seeds number
approximately 8000/kg.
common names & nomenclature
The generic name of this plant derives from the Greek akakia, which derives
from the Greek word for its characteristic thorns. The species name
nilotica was given by Linnaeus from this tree's best-known range along the
Nile river.
Also known as:
gum arabic tree, acacia, egyptian thorn, kher, dreidorn-skazie, arabisches gummi, gomme arabique vraie, gum acacia, acaciae gummi, gummi arabicum, khordofan gum, senegal gum, west african gum, babul/kikar, sant tree, al-sant, prickly acacia, thorn mimosa, scented thorn, karuvela maram, acacia gum, chaar gund, char goond, or meska
