Vachellia seyal
species of plant
Vachellia seyal, the red acacia, known also as the shittah tree (the source of shittim wood), is a thorny, 6– to 10-m-high (20 to 30 ft) tree with a pale greenish or reddish bark.
Description
At the base of the 3–10 cm (1.2–3.9 in) feathery leaves, two straight, light grey thorns grow to 7–20 cm (2.8–7.9 in) long. The blossoms are displayed in round, bright yellow clusters about 1.5 cm (0.59 in) in diameter.
In Vachellia seyal var. fistula, which is more common on heavy clay soils, some of the thorns are swollen as domatia, housing mutualistic ants such as Crematogaster.
In Africa, it is native to many countries, from Morocco in the north to Mozambique in the south. In the Sahara, it often grows in damp valleys. It is also found in wadis on the Arabian Peninsula.
Varieties
Two varieties are recognized:
Vachellia seyal var. fistula (Schweinf.) Kyal.
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This entry incorporates text from “Vachellia seyal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.