Vachellia tortilis

Vachellia tortilis (Forssk.) Galasso & Banfi, Atti Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat. Mus. Civico Storia Nat. Milano 149: 150. 2008; Acacia tortilis (Forssk.) Hayne, Arzneyk. 10.t. 31. 1827; Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org; Mimosa tortilis, Fl. Aegypt. - Arab. 176. 1775.

Small to medium-sized evergreen tree or shrub, up to 21 m tall; well-developed multiple boles support a flat-topped or rounded, spreading umbrella- shaped crown; bark grey to black or dark brown, rough, fissured or smooth; young branchlets red to brown, glabrous, subglabrous or densely pubescent. Stipular spines in pairs variable: both straight, white, equal or unequal, 1.2-4 (-8) cm long; both curved or hooked, brownish, equal or unequal, up to 5 mm long; one curved and other straight. Leaves alternate, bipinnate, 1.25-4 cm long; rachis 1.2-3.8 cm (including 6-10 mm long petiole), adaxially channelled, sparsely pubescent; pinnae 2-7 pairs, 1.2-1.5 cm long (including +/- 1 mm long petiolules), rachillae flattened, leaflets attached in pairs on the adaxial side, with scanty spiny hairs on abaxial side; leaflets 5-12 pairs per pinna, 2-4 mm x ca. 1 mm, slightly succulent, oblong to linear-oblong, apex rounded, margin entire, base unequal; petiolules minute; one gland on petiole usually below the lowest pair of pinnae; sometimes one gland between the apical pair of pinnae. Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, 5-merous, hypogynous, white or yellowish-white, sessile or subsessile, fragrant, in globose heads with 0.5-1.1 cm diameter, on axillary peduncles, solitary or in fascicles of 2-5, 5-15 (-25) mm long, white; involucel of bracts in whorl usually in lower half of peduncle, bracts 0.5-0.7 mm long, brown. Calyx 1-1.5 mm long, campanulate, 5-toothed. Corolla nearly 2x larger than calyx, campanulate, 5-toothed; calyx and corolla whitish-cream coloured. Stamens indefinite, much exserted, 4-5 mm long; anthers small, eglandular. Ovary pubescent, stipitate, unilocular, ovules many, placentation marginal; style slender; stigma small, terminal. Legumes variable, indehiscent, spirally twisted, 7-10 cm x 6-10 (-13) mm, longitudinally veined, leathery, glabrous, somewhat constricted between the seeds. Seeds 4-7 mm x 3-6 mm, compressed.

Flowering and Fruiting: June to April
Common Names: Umbrella Thorn Acacia, Israeli Babool, Curly-pod Acacia, Umbrella Thorn; Israeli Babool (Hindi)