Compilation
Acacia pentagona

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Name

Identification
Acacia pentagona (Schumach. & Thonn.) Hook.f. [family FABACEAE-MIMOSOIDEAE ]
Related name
  • Acacia pentagona

Flora

Entry for ACACIA pentagona (Schumach. & Thonn.) Hook. f. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (1959) Author: J. P. M. Brenan
Names
ACACIA pentagona (Schumach. & Thonn.) Hook. f. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], in Niger Fl.: 331 (1849). Type: Ghana, Jadofa, Thonning (C, holo., K, photo.!)
Mimosa pentagona Schumach. & Thonn. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], Beskr. Guin. Pl.: 324 (1827)
Acacia pentaptera Welw. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], in Ann. Conselho Ultram. 1858: 584 (1859); Consp. Fl. Angol. 2: 287 (1956)
Acacia pennata [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], [sensu auct., e.g. T.T.C.L.: 333 (1949), pro parte, non (L.) Willd.]
Acacia silvicola Gilb. & Bout. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], in B.J.B.B. 22: 179 (1952), pro parte, sensu stricto & in F.C.B. 3: 155 (1952). Type: Belgian Congo, between Lilanga and Yangole, Louis 6978 (BR, holo., K, iso.!)
Information
An often tall liane. Young branches sparsely puberulous to glabrous and eglandular, very rarely with inconspicuous sessile glands, red-brown to deep purplish. Prickles deflexed, scattered, arising from longitudinal bands usually darker than the intervening ones. Leaves: petiole (1.5–)2–6 cm. long; pinnae 8–15 pairs, 2.5–9 cm. long; leaflets linear or linear-oblong, 0.7–1.8(–2) mm. wide, glabrous or nearly so, midrib nearer one margin at base. Flowers white, in heads 8–10(–12) mm. in diameter usually in ample panicles. Stipules at base of peduncles small, 0.75–1.5 mm. wide, inconspicuous, soon caducous, not subcordate at base. Calyx eglandular outside. Corolla glabrous or rarely sparingly puberulous outside. Pods (Fig. 15/28, p. 66) thick, hard, oblong, dark brown, 7.5–16 cm. long, 1.8–3.5 cm. wide, indehiscent and with markedly thickened margins 2–4 mm. wide. Seeds black, smooth, ellipsoid, thick but somewhat compressed, 10–13 mm. long, 6–8 mm. wide; areole large, 7–10 mm. long and 4.5–6 mm. wide.
Range
DISTR. U3, 4; K7; T1–3,?5, 6 from French Guinea and Sierra Leone to the Belgian Congo and Uganda, southwards to Angola, Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa
Altitude range
400–1450 m.
Distribution
KENYA Teita District Taveta, 22 Jan. 1936, Greenway 4475!TANGANYIKA Bukoba District Kaigi, Sept.-Oct. 1935, Gillman 620!TANGANYIKA Kilimanjaro, H. H. Johnston !;TANGANYIKA Lushoto District Sigi-Pandeni, 1 May 1915, Peter K828! & Longuza, 7 Apr. 1922, Soleman!UGANDA Busoga District near Jinja, May 1931, Harris 25 in F.H. 85!;UGANDA Mengo District Kiagwe, Namanve Forest, Apr. 1932, Eggeling 405 in F.H. 687! & Kitabe near Entebbe, Feb. 1935, Chandler 1168!
Notes
A. pentagona is typically a liane of evergreen forest. From A. kamerunensis and A. taylorii it is distinguished by the normally dark twigs, larger leaflets, and by the thick, normally indehiscent pods. The seeds also have a large areole. From A. schweinfurthii it is likewise distinct in the darker twigs, the pods, and in the ciliolation of the leaflets being very inconspicuous or absent. From the other East African species of the A. pennata complex it is readily separable by the long petioles.

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