SENEGALIA

Senegalia Raf., Sylva Tellur.: 119. 1838.

Trees or shrubs. Unarmed or armed with prickles but lack stipular spines; when armed prickles mainly scattered, sometimes grouped in twos or threes near nodes. Leaves alternate, bipinnate with sessile or stipitate glands in variable positions on rachis and petioles. Inflorescence lacking involucre.

220 species

Senegalia modesta

Senegalia modesta (Wall.) P.J.H. Hurter, in D.J. Mabberley, Plant-book, ed. 3:1021.2008; Acacia modesta Wall., Pl. As. Rar. 2: 27.t. 130. 1831; Baker. in Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. 2: 296. 1879; Parker, For. Fl. Punj. ed. 1. 193. 1918 (Reprint 1973); Ali, Fl. Pak @ eFloras.org; Acacia senegal subsp. modesta (Wall.) Roberty, Candollea 11: 154. 1948.

A small or medium-sized deciduous tree, young shoots glabrous or nearly so; bark brownish or greenish-grey, rough. Prickles pseudostipular, in pairs, below the petioles, compressed, strongly recurved, dark brown, shining, ca. 5 mm long. Rachis 1.2-5 cm long, adaxially channelled with a small gland near the base or in middle and sometimes one between the uppermost pair of pinnae. Pinnae 2-4 pairs, 1.2-2.5 cm long; leaflets 3-5 pairs, lamina 4-10 mm x 3-7 mm, broadly ovate or obovate, oblique, obtuse, glabrous; petiolules minute. Flowers pale creamy-white, in cylindric axillary, solitary or geminate (in pairs) pedunculate spikes, 4-7 cm long; peduncles up to 2.5 cm long; Pedicels 0.3-0.5 mm long. Calyx 1-1.5 mm long, broadly campanulate, 5-toothed, teeth minute, glabrous. Corolla ca. 2-2.5 mm long, lobes 5, ca. 1.5 mm long. Stamens indefinite, much exserted, filaments 4-5 mm long; anthers small, eglandular. Ovary shortly stipitate, ca. 1.25 mm long, glabrous, unilocular, ovules +/-7, placentation marginal; style ca. 5 mm long; stigma small, capitate. Legumes 5-10 cm x 0.7-2 cm, thin, flat, straight, apex deltoid with a small straight beak, base attenuated into a distinct stipe, late in dehiscing. Seeds 3-6.

Flowering and Fruiting: February to July
Common Names: Amritsar Gum, Blackwood, Black Sally; Phulai (Hindi); Phalahi (Punjabi)