NELTUMA

Neltuma Raf., Sylva Tellur. 119. 1838.

43 species

Neltuma juliflora

Neltuma juliflora (Sw.) Raf., Sylva Tellur. 119. 1838; Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) DC., Prodr. 2: 447. 1825; Jafri, FL. Kar. 150. 1966; Parker, For. FL. Punj. ed. 1. 200. 1918 (Reprint 1973); FL. Pak. @ eFloras.org; cabi.org Mimosa juliflora Swartz, Prodr. Veg. Ind. Occ. 85. 1788.

Medium sized tree, 3-12 m tall, sometimes shrubby with spreading branches; wood hard, branches cylindrical, green, more or less round or flat-topped, somewhat spiny with persistent, green foliage, glabrous or somewhat pubescent or ciliate on the leaflets; spines axillary, uninodal divergent, paired, or solitary and paired on the same branch, sometimes absent, not on all branchlets, measuring 0.5-2.5 (-5.0) cm long, being largest on the strong basal shoots. Leaves alternate, bipinnate, glabrous or pubescent, 1-3 pairs of pinnae, rarely 4 pairs, one gland each on rachis between pairs of pinnae; rachis (including petiole) 0.5-7.5 cm long, prolonged beyond the last pair of pinnae as a soft bristle; pinnae 3-11 cm long; leaflets (6-)11-15(-26) pairs, 7-23 mm x 1.6-5.5 mm, elliptic-oblong, glabrous or ciliate, rarely pubescent, approximate on the rachis or distant a little more than their own width, herbaceous to sub-membranous, emarginated or obtuse, pinnate-reticulately curved. Inflorescence dense axillary cylindrical pedunculate spike, 7-15 cm long, peduncle 6-12 mm long, puberulent. Flowers greenish-yellow turning light yellow. Calyx ca. 1 mm, cup-shaped or campanulate, 5- toothed, teeth small. Petals 5, free, ca. 3 mm long, tip and margin hairy. Stamens 10, free, exserted, ca. 4 mm long, anthers tipped with deciduous glands. Ovary stipitate, ovules many, placentation marginal; style slender; stigma small, terminal. Legumes straight with incurved apex, sometimes falcate, straw-yellow to brown, compressed, linear with parallel margins, stalked and acuminate, 8-29 cm long, 9-17 mm broad and 4-8 mm thick; stipe to 2 cm; endocarp segments up to 25, rectangular to sub-quadrate, mostly broader than long. Seeds 10-25, oval, brown, transverse.

Flowering and Fruiting: March-September
Common Names: Mesquite, Algaroba; Junglee Kikkar, Vilayati Babul, Kabuli Kikkar