Compilation
Acacia tortilis

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Name

Identification
Acacia tortilis (Forssk.) Hayne [family FABACEAE ]
Related name
  • Acacia tortilis
Common name
  • tahi (JB) talah (JB) talha (auctt.) tèlhaya (JB) t’teh (JB) (SENEGAL, ARABIC (Senegal)), Burkill, H.M. 1985. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 3
  • allode (JB) alluki (JB) aluki (A.Chev.) aluko (JB) bulbi (JB) čili (SENEGAL, FULA-PULAAR (Senegal)), Burkill, H.M. 1985. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 3
  • (Hassaniya) talh, talha (auctt.) tamat (Kesby) (MAURITANIA, ARABIC), Burkill, H.M. 1985. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 3
  • faux gommier (Le Riche)., Burkill, H.M. 1985. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 3

Flora

Entry for ACACIA tortilis (Forssk.) Hayne [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Somalia
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora Somalia, Vol 1, (1993) Author: by M. Thulin (Acacia by M. Thulin, A. S. Hassan & B. T. Styles) [updated by M. Thulin 2008]
Names
ACACIA tortilis (Forssk.) Hayne [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], (1827).
Information
Tree 4–21 m, mostly with flat crown; young branchlets glabrous to densely pubescent. Stipular spines in pairs, some short, hooked and up to 5 mm long, mixed with other straight slender ones up to 10 cm long. Leaves: pinnae 2–10 pairs; leaflets 6–22 pairs, 0.5–4(–6) x 0.5–1 mm. Flowers whitish, in heads; peduncles 0.4–2.4 cm long, with the involucel in the lower half. Calyx 1–2 mm long. Corolla 1.5–2.5 mm long. Pods contorted, spirally twisted, or rarely almost straight, indehiscent or very slowly dehiscent, 0.6–1(–1.3) cm wide, longitudinally veined, glabrous to tomentellous or villous. Seeds 4–7 x 3–6 mm, compressed; areole 3–6 x 2–4 mm.
Notes
Var. crinita is a form with pods clothed with 1–3 mm long spreading hairs. In Somalia it is only known from S1, but plants with similar indumentum of the pods are known also from Kenya and Tanzania. A. tortilis in general is very variable in Somalia and at least two forms here tentatively placed in subsp. spirocarpa may well represent other taxa: (1) In N3 there are forms (Gillett 23023, 23079) with glabrous pods like subsp. raddiana, but with hairy leaves like subsp. spirocarpa. They agree quite well with subsp. heteracantha (Burch.) Brenan in the dry regions of southern Africa, but I hesitate in placing them in this taxon without further evidence. (2) In C1 and C2 there is a shrubby form with almost straight, pubescent and glandular pods, up to 15 x 0.5 cm, and hairy leaves (Kuchar 16721, Herlocker s.n., Hassan 235). This might be best treated as a subspecies of its own, but also here further studies are needed.

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