Compilation
Acacia giraffae

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Name

Identification
Acacia giraffae Willd. [family LEGUMINOSAE ]
Related name
  • Acacia giraffae

Flora

Entry for Acacia giraffae Willd. [family LEGUMINOSAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Zambesiaca
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
FZ, Vol 3, Part 1, (1970) Author: J.P.M. Brenan
Names
Acacia giraffae Willd. [family LEGUMINOSAE], Enum. Hort. Berol.: 1054 (1809). — Burch., Trav. Int. S. Afr. 2: 240-241 (1824). — Eyles, Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. 5: 362 (1916). — Bak. f., Legum. Trop. Afr. 3: 835 (1930). — Burtt Davy, F.P.F.T. 2: 340, fig. 59 (1932). — Hutch., Botanist in S. Afr.: 178, 341, 386, 412, 418, 424, 425, 481, 543, 547, cum photogr. (1946). — O. B. Mill., B.C.L.: 18 (1948); in Journ. S. Afr. Bot. 18: 21 (1952). — Fanshawe, Fifty Common Trees N. Rhod.: 8 cum fig. (1952). — Pardy in Rhod. Agric. Journ. 50: 4 cum photogr. (1953). — Wild, S. Rhod. Bot. Dict.: 47 (1953). — Torre, C.F.A. 2: 281 (1956). — Story in Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Afr. 30: 23 (1958). — Leistner in Koedoe, 4: 101-104 (1961). — Palmer & Pitman, Trees S. Afr.: 153 cum fig. et photogr. (1961). — F. White, F.F.N.R.: 84, fig. 17 (1962). — Mitchell in Puku, 1: 104 (1963). — de Winter, de Winter & Killick, Sixty-six Transvaal Trees: 46 cum photogr. (1966). — Boughey in Journ. S. Afr. Bot. 30: 157 (1964). TAB. 15 fig. 10. Type from S. Africa.
Information
Tree (4·5)6-16(22) m. high, often rather large, rounded or flat-topped with a spread up to 18 m., bark deeply furrowed, grey-black to blackish-brown; young branchlets glabrous to rather densely spreading-pubescent, eglandular. Stipules spinescent, up to 5(8·5) cm. long, often rather stout, often thickened below and fused together at the base into an enlarged “ant-gall” up to c. 1·5-2 x 2-2·5 cm., furrowed or not down the middle; other prickles absent. Leaves with a small sessile gland at the junction of each of the (1)2-5 pairs of pinnae; no petiolar gland; leaflets (6)8-15 pairs, 4·5-13 x 1·5-4·5 mm., glabrous to pubescent especially on the margins, entire, eglandular, rounded to subacute but not spinulose-mucronate at the apex; lateral nerves ± prominent and visible beneath. Flowers bright golden-yellow, in axillary often long-pedunculate heads 8-12 mm. in diam. scattered along shoots usually of the previous season, rarely of the current one; involucel strictly apical. Calyx 2·5 mm. long, glabrous. Corolla 3-3·5 mm. long, glabrous or nearly so. Pods indehiscent, (4)6-11 x 2·5-4·7 cm., straight to falcate, very densely grey-velutinous all over. Seeds deep-chestnut-brown, 8-13 x 7-10 mm., irregular in size and shape, sometimes scarcely compressed; areole variable in size, 3-6·5 x 2-4 mm.
Habitat
Generally on Kalahari Sand, in dry woodland, wooded grassland, and sometimes in Baikiaea-Acacia forest
Altitude range
900–1050 m.
1050
900
Distribution
Zimbabwe S Nuanetsi Distr., 16 km. W. of. Marhumbini Mission, fl. 12.ix.1967, Müller 659 (K; SRGH).Zambia S Namwala, fl. 23.vi.1952, White 2977 (K).Botswana SW Damara Pan, fr. 20.iv.1930, Van Son 28869 (BM; PRE).Botswana SE Mahalapye, st. ix.1961, Yalala 136 (K; SRGH).Zimbabwe W Wankie Game Reserve, fl. 13.ix.1958, Guy 55/58 (SRGH).Zambia B Sesheke, fr. immat. 31.i.1952, White 1983 (K).Botswana N Chobe R., fl. 28.vii.1950, Robertson & Elffers 70 (K, PRE).Caprivi Strip About 80 km. from Katima Mulilo on road to Linyanti, fr. 27.xii.1951, Killick & Leistner 3141 (PRE).
Distribution (external)
Angola
south-western Africa
South Africa
Notes
On account of the combination of leaflets with prominent venation beneath, apical involucels and bright-yellow flowers, this species is easily separated from all but A. farnesiana, which differs greatly in habit, non-inflated spines, different arrangement of glands on the leaf-rhachis, usually narrower leaflets, and smaller glabrous pods.A. giraffae is the Camelthorn or Kameeldoorn of S. Africa. Its characteristic thick-walled pods which have transverse partitions between the seeds, are eaten by stock.Roots, probably of A. giraffae, have been reported at a depth of 150 feet in a borehole in SW. Africa (see Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Afr. 27: 117 (1952)).The pollen-grains of Acacia are multiple-celled. According to Coetzee in S. Afr. Journ. Sci. 52: 23 (1955), those of A. giraffae are anomalous in consisting of 32 cells and not 16 as in the other species studied.

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