Faidherbia albida(Del.) A. Chev. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], (1934). Fig. 197 A. [type as above]
Information
Tree up to 30 m high, with ± rounded crown; bark rough, dark brown or greyish; branchlets straw-coloured or whitish. Stipular spines up to c. 2 cm long, straight. Leaves with pinnae 3–10 pairs; rhachis with a conspicuous gland at the junction of each pinna pair, but petiole eglandular; leaflets 6–23 pairs, 3.5–6(–12) x 0.7–2.25(–4) mm. Flowers yellowish-white, sessile or shortly pedicellate, in spikes 3.5–14 cm long. Calyx up to 2 mm long. Corolla up to 3.5 mm long. Filaments basally connate; anthers eglandular even in bud. Pods falcate or coiled, indehiscent, 6–25 x 2–3.5 cm, bright orange or purplish-brown. Seeds elliptic-lenticular, 9–11 x 6–8 mm; areole 7–9 x 4–6 mm.
Range
N1 widespread in tropical and subtropical Africa, also in W Asia.
Altitude range
c. 1500 m.
Distribution
SOMALIA Glover & Gilliland 579; Hassan 9.
Notes
Garabi (Som.). A. albida displays a number of unusual characters, such as eglandular petiole, basally connate filaments, and eglandular anthers. It is not closely related to any other species of Acacia and should be placed in the monotypic genus Faidherbia.