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ACACIA xanthophloea Benth. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE]

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

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 xanthophloea Benth. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], in Trans. Linn. Soc. 30: 511 (1875); L.T.A.: 851 (1930); T.S.K.: 70 (1936); T.T.C.L.: 334 (1949); Bogdan in Nature in E. Afr., ser. 2, No. 1: 12 (1949). Types: Nyasaland, E. end of Lake Shirwa [Chilwa], Meller (K, syn.!) & Portuguese East Africa, Sena, Kirk (K, syn.!) ACACIA songwensis Harms [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], in E.J. 30: 317 (1901). Type: Tanganyika, Mbeya/Chunya District, Songwe Valley, Goetze 1054 (B, holo. †, BM, drawing!)
Information
Tree 10–25 m. high; bark on trunk lemon-coloured to greenish-yellow. Young branchlets brown to plum-coloured, almost glabrous and with some sessile reddish glands; twigs showing conspicuous pale yellow powdery bark. Stipules spinescent, straight or almost so, varying in length, up to 7 (–8.5) cm. long; “ant-galls” and other prickles absent. Leaves: rhachis (2.5–)3–7 cm. long, glabrous to sparingly pubescent; pinnae 3–6(–8) pairs (on juvenile shoots sometimes to 10 pairs) per leaf; leaflets rather numerous, 2.5–6.5 mm. long, 0.75–1.75 mm. wide; lateral nerves invisible beneath. Flowers varying from white or purplish to yellow or golden (see note below). Peduncles sparingly (rarely rather densely) pubescent to subglabrous, and glandular below and sometimes also above the involucel, usually (at least) on abbreviated lateral shoots whose axes do not elongate and are represented by clustered scales, the peduncles thus appearing to be in lateral fascicles on the older often yellow-barked twigs whose leaves have fallen; involucel conspicuous, 3–3.5 mm. long, near base of to about half-way up peduncle. Calyx 1–1.5 mm. long. Pods (Fig. 16/36, p. 67) indehiscent, linear-oblong, straight or slightly curved, ± moniliform with segments mostly longer than wide, often breaking up, pale brown or brown, reticulate-venose, eglandular or sparingly glandular, (3–) 4–13.5 cm. long, 0.7–1.4 cm. wide. Seeds olive to blackish-olive, smooth or nearly so, subcircular to elliptic, compressed, 4.5–5.5 mm. long, 3.5–4 mm. wide; areole 3–3.5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide.
Range
DISTR. K1, 3, 4, 6, 7; T2–5, 7
Altitude range
600–1980 m.
Distribution
KENYA Northern Frontier Province Malal [? Maralal] to Kisima, 4 Nov. 1932, D. C. Edwards 1865!;KENYA Naivasha District Lake Naivasha, Oct. 1930, Napier 458 in C.M. 1413! & Sept. 1933, van Someren 2722 in C.M. 5143!;KENYA Kiambu District foot of Limuru Escarpment, 14 Jan. 1951, Bogdan 2880!TANGANYIKA Masai District Ngorongoro Crater bottom, 19 Sept. 1943, Lindeman 846!;TANGANYIKA Kondoa District Bubu R., 9 Nov. 1927, B. D. Burtt 698!TANGANYIKA Mbeya (or? Chunya) District Songwe Valley to Lake Rukwa, 17 Sept. 1936, B. D. Burtt 6040!
Distribution (external)
; Portuguese East Africa Nyasaland Southern Rhodesia Transvaal Zululand
Notes
A. xanthophloea, the famous Fever Tree with its pallid yellow bark, is apparently unique among the East African acacias in having flowers either white to pinkish or purplish, or else yellow to golden. White to purplish flowers are d for Kenya and Tanganyika (see, e.g., Bogdan, A List of Kenya Acacias with Keys for Identification: 1, 4 (1956) and T.T.C.L.: 334 (1949)), but nowhere, so far, south of these territories; while to the south of Tanganyika yellow to golden flowers are d by all collectors who mention flower-colour for A. xanthophloea. The only evidence for the yellow-flowered variant in our area is that the flowers of the type of the synonymous A. songwensis, collected perhaps in the same locality as Burtt 6040 (see above), are described as yellow; also that Semsei 2097, from Tanganyika, Pare District, near Same, is described as having bright yellow flowers. The geographical dividing line between the colour-variants is thus presumably in Tanganyika, but beyond that it is quite uncertain, presenting an interesting problem for observers in the field. I have so far failed to find any differences except colour between the two although closer observation may yet reveal them. White-flowered A. xanthophloea is closely akin to A. kirkii, especially subsp. mildbraedii, while the yellow-flowered form resembles A. seyal var. seyal. The differences are given in the keys. An apparent hybrid between A. seyal var. fistula and A. xanthophloea has been collected in Nyasaland (Greenway 6349) and crosses between the same two species should be looked for in East Africa.

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

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 xanthophloea Benth. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], in Trans. Linn. Soc. 30: 511 (1875); L.T.A.: 851 (1930); T.S.K.: 70 (1936); T.T.C.L.: 334 (1949); Bogdan in Nature in E. Afr., ser. 2, No. 1: 12 (1949). Types: Nyasaland, E. end of Lake Shirwa [Chilwa], Meller (K, syn.!) & Portuguese East Africa, Sena, Kirk (K, syn.!) ACACIA songwensis Harms [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], in E.J. 30: 317 (1901). Type: Tanganyika, Mbeya/Chunya District, Songwe Valley, Goetze 1054 (B, holo. †, BM, drawing!)
Information
Tree 10–25 m. high; bark on trunk lemon-coloured to greenish-yellow. Young branchlets brown to plum-coloured, almost glabrous and with some sessile reddish glands; twigs showing conspicuous pale yellow powdery bark. Stipules spinescent, straight or almost so, varying in length, up to 7 (–8.5) cm. long; “ant-galls” and other prickles absent. Leaves: rhachis (2.5–)3–7 cm. long, glabrous to sparingly pubescent; pinnae 3–6(–8) pairs (on juvenile shoots sometimes to 10 pairs) per leaf; leaflets rather numerous, 2.5–6.5 mm. long, 0.75–1.75 mm. wide; lateral nerves invisible beneath. Flowers varying from white or purplish to yellow or golden (see note below). Peduncles sparingly (rarely rather densely) pubescent to subglabrous, and glandular below and sometimes also above the involucel, usually (at least) on abbreviated lateral shoots whose axes do not elongate and are represented by clustered scales, the peduncles thus appearing to be in lateral fascicles on the older often yellow-barked twigs whose leaves have fallen; involucel conspicuous, 3–3.5 mm. long, near base of to about half-way up peduncle. Calyx 1–1.5 mm. long. Pods (Fig. 16/36, p. 67) indehiscent, linear-oblong, straight or slightly curved, ± moniliform with segments mostly longer than wide, often breaking up, pale brown or brown, reticulate-venose, eglandular or sparingly glandular, (3–) 4–13.5 cm. long, 0.7–1.4 cm. wide. Seeds olive to blackish-olive, smooth or nearly so, subcircular to elliptic, compressed, 4.5–5.5 mm. long, 3.5–4 mm. wide; areole 3–3.5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide.
Range
DISTR. K1, 3, 4, 6, 7; T2–5, 7
Altitude range
600–1980 m.
Distribution
KENYA Northern Frontier Province Malal [? Maralal] to Kisima, 4 Nov. 1932, D. C. Edwards 1865!;KENYA Naivasha District Lake Naivasha, Oct. 1930, Napier 458 in C.M. 1413! & Sept. 1933, van Someren 2722 in C.M. 5143!;KENYA Kiambu District foot of Limuru Escarpment, 14 Jan. 1951, Bogdan 2880!TANGANYIKA Masai District Ngorongoro Crater bottom, 19 Sept. 1943, Lindeman 846!;TANGANYIKA Kondoa District Bubu R., 9 Nov. 1927, B. D. Burtt 698!TANGANYIKA Mbeya (or? Chunya) District Songwe Valley to Lake Rukwa, 17 Sept. 1936, B. D. Burtt 6040!
Distribution (external)
; Portuguese East Africa Nyasaland Southern Rhodesia Transvaal Zululand
Notes
A. xanthophloea, the famous Fever Tree with its pallid yellow bark, is apparently unique among the East African acacias in having flowers either white to pinkish or purplish, or else yellow to golden. White to purplish flowers are d for Kenya and Tanganyika (see, e.g., Bogdan, A List of Kenya Acacias with Keys for Identification: 1, 4 (1956) and T.T.C.L.: 334 (1949)), but nowhere, so far, south of these territories; while to the south of Tanganyika yellow to golden flowers are d by all collectors who mention flower-colour for A. xanthophloea. The only evidence for the yellow-flowered variant in our area is that the flowers of the type of the synonymous A. songwensis, collected perhaps in the same locality as Burtt 6040 (see above), are described as yellow; also that Semsei 2097, from Tanganyika, Pare District, near Same, is described as having bright yellow flowers. The geographical dividing line between the colour-variants is thus presumably in Tanganyika, but beyond that it is quite uncertain, presenting an interesting problem for observers in the field. I have so far failed to find any differences except colour between the two although closer observation may yet reveal them. White-flowered A. xanthophloea is closely akin to A. kirkii, especially subsp. mildbraedii, while the yellow-flowered form resembles A. seyal var. seyal. The differences are given in the keys. An apparent hybrid between A. seyal var. fistula and A. xanthophloea has been collected in Nyasaland (Greenway 6349) and crosses between the same two species should be looked for in East Africa.

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

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 xanthophloea Benth. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], in Trans. Linn. Soc. 30: 511 (1875); L.T.A.: 851 (1930); T.S.K.: 70 (1936); T.T.C.L.: 334 (1949); Bogdan in Nature in E. Afr., ser. 2, No. 1: 12 (1949). Types: Nyasaland, E. end of Lake Shirwa [Chilwa], Meller (K, syn.!) & Portuguese East Africa, Sena, Kirk (K, syn.!) ACACIA songwensis Harms [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE], in E.J. 30: 317 (1901). Type: Tanganyika, Mbeya/Chunya District, Songwe Valley, Goetze 1054 (B, holo. †, BM, drawing!)
Information
Tree 10–25 m. high; bark on trunk lemon-coloured to greenish-yellow. Young branchlets brown to plum-coloured, almost glabrous and with some sessile reddish glands; twigs showing conspicuous pale yellow powdery bark. Stipules spinescent, straight or almost so, varying in length, up to 7 (–8.5) cm. long; “ant-galls” and other prickles absent. Leaves: rhachis (2.5–)3–7 cm. long, glabrous to sparingly pubescent; pinnae 3–6(–8) pairs (on juvenile shoots sometimes to 10 pairs) per leaf; leaflets rather numerous, 2.5–6.5 mm. long, 0.75–1.75 mm. wide; lateral nerves invisible beneath. Flowers varying from white or purplish to yellow or golden (see note below). Peduncles sparingly (rarely rather densely) pubescent to subglabrous, and glandular below and sometimes also above the involucel, usually (at least) on abbreviated lateral shoots whose axes do not elongate and are represented by clustered scales, the peduncles thus appearing to be in lateral fascicles on the older often yellow-barked twigs whose leaves have fallen; involucel conspicuous, 3–3.5 mm. long, near base of to about half-way up peduncle. Calyx 1–1.5 mm. long. Pods (Fig. 16/36, p. 67) indehiscent, linear-oblong, straight or slightly curved, ± moniliform with segments mostly longer than wide, often breaking up, pale brown or brown, reticulate-venose, eglandular or sparingly glandular, (3–) 4–13.5 cm. long, 0.7–1.4 cm. wide. Seeds olive to blackish-olive, smooth or nearly so, subcircular to elliptic, compressed, 4.5–5.5 mm. long, 3.5–4 mm. wide; areole 3–3.5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide.
Range
DISTR. K1, 3, 4, 6, 7; T2–5, 7
Altitude range
600–1980 m.
Distribution
KENYA Northern Frontier Province Malal [? Maralal] to Kisima, 4 Nov. 1932, D. C. Edwards 1865!;KENYA Naivasha District Lake Naivasha, Oct. 1930, Napier 458 in C.M. 1413! & Sept. 1933, van Someren 2722 in C.M. 5143!;KENYA Kiambu District foot of Limuru Escarpment, 14 Jan. 1951, Bogdan 2880!TANGANYIKA Masai District Ngorongoro Crater bottom, 19 Sept. 1943, Lindeman 846!;TANGANYIKA Kondoa District Bubu R., 9 Nov. 1927, B. D. Burtt 698!TANGANYIKA Mbeya (or? Chunya) District Songwe Valley to Lake Rukwa, 17 Sept. 1936, B. D. Burtt 6040!
Distribution (external)
; Portuguese East Africa Nyasaland Southern Rhodesia Transvaal Zululand
Notes
A. xanthophloea, the famous Fever Tree with its pallid yellow bark, is apparently unique among the East African acacias in having flowers either white to pinkish or purplish, or else yellow to golden. White to purplish flowers are d for Kenya and Tanganyika (see, e.g., Bogdan, A List of Kenya Acacias with Keys for Identification: 1, 4 (1956) and T.T.C.L.: 334 (1949)), but nowhere, so far, south of these territories; while to the south of Tanganyika yellow to golden flowers are d by all collectors who mention flower-colour for A. xanthophloea. The only evidence for the yellow-flowered variant in our area is that the flowers of the type of the synonymous A. songwensis, collected perhaps in the same locality as Burtt 6040 (see above), are described as yellow; also that Semsei 2097, from Tanganyika, Pare District, near Same, is described as having bright yellow flowers. The geographical dividing line between the colour-variants is thus presumably in Tanganyika, but beyond that it is quite uncertain, presenting an interesting problem for observers in the field. I have so far failed to find any differences except colour between the two although closer observation may yet reveal them. White-flowered A. xanthophloea is closely akin to A. kirkii, especially subsp. mildbraedii, while the yellow-flowered form resembles A. seyal var. seyal. The differences are given in the keys. An apparent hybrid between A. seyal var. fistula and A. xanthophloea has been collected in Nyasaland (Greenway 6349) and crosses between the same two species should be looked for in East Africa.
ACACIA xanthophloea Benth. [family LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE]
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