Leguminosae-mim Acacia laeta R.Br. ex Benth.

| |	© Rosemary Wise

Keywords in this picture :

• Foliage
• Gland
• Node
• Stipule
• Flower
• Fruit
• Habit
• Lamina leaf blade
• Leaflet
• Seed
• Thorn
• Vegetative
• Spines prickles etc
• Fruit details
• Leaf parts
• Stem
• Flower part
• Leaf blade glands etc
• Flower & fruit
• Glands (large types)
• Leaf
• Parts of compound lvs
• Plant parts

Places where this species can be found :

• Diare (Tamale - Bolgatanga road) - NSBPGHANA

Species information

Interest
An important source of firewood and high quality charcoal in the Sahel. While wood properties are unrecorded, the poles have been used for fence posts and general construction. The thorny branches are used for brush fences to contain livestock. Foliage and pods are browsed by livestock. Produces an edible gum, with a pleasent flavour known commercially as kittir azarack. The Mbeere tribe in northern Kenya use bark fibre for rope and building ties, and honey hunters use the resinous fibres as torches. The inner bark is chewed for a resinous sap that is reputed to relieve coughing (Wickens et al. 1995).

Other Notes
Common names: Mali: Ahustafa (Tam). Species characteristics : Shrub or tree to 7 m tall, with a open rounded crown, and grey green bark turning blackish with age, with a red slash. It has an very unusual distribution range, from tropical west Africa and north-east Africa from Egypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia southwards to Tanzania, with recently discovered material in Zimbabwe. It has been shown morphologically intermediate between A. senegal var. senegal and A. mellifera var. mellifera in Sudan (El Amin 1976), and is likely to be of hybrid origin. It mainly has 2 prickles like mellifera, although close study with find odd groups of 3 prickles, and its leaflets (2-5) per pinnae more than mellifera and less than senegal. Leaflets are also well seperated along the rhachillae and are attached asymmetrically. Found in arid sites, on a wide range of sites, from rocky, lateritic and sandy loams as well as clay plains, and usually found where both putative parents occur. Produces edible gum, is good fuel and for local construction, leaves and pods are well browsed, and stem bark used for ropes. Distribution: Djibouti ; Egypt ; Ethiopia ; Kenya (Rift valley, Masai, Kajiado, Narok, Maralal, Baringo); Mali (Nampala, Gao); Niger (Niamey, Zinder, Agadez); Nigeria (Bornu); Saudi Arabia ); Somalia (Togdheer); Sudan (Darfur, Khartoum, Kordofan, Ash Sharqiyah); Tanzania (Mbulu, Masai, Mbulu/Masai); Yemen Republic; Zimbabwe; Oman. Specimen total: 74 Degree squares: 27 Collection years: 1800-1996 Phenology :Flowering period: Feb(3), Mar(3), Apr(1), May(5), Jul(1), Aug(1), Sep(1), Oct(3), Nov(3), Dec(2) Fruiting period: Jan(8), Feb(2), Mar(2), Apr(2), May(2), Jun(5), Jul(3), Aug(2), Sep(3), Oct(1), Nov(4), Dec(1) Altitude range: 60-1890m

Specimen information

Collector
PS

Specimen Number
s.n.