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49-407: See text The Mimosoideae are a traditional subfamily of trees, herbs, lianas, and shrubs in the pea family ( Fabaceae ) that mostly grow in tropical and subtropical climates. They are typically characterized by having radially symmetric flowers, with petals that are twice divided (valvate) in bud and with numerous showy, prominent stamens. Recent work on phylogenetic relationships has found that

98-404: A closed or almost closed O-shaped line. Some phyllodinous species have a colourful aril or elaiosome on the seed. Subfamily Detarioideae is an example of a botanical subfamily. Detarioideae is a subdivision of the family Fabaceae (legumes), containing 84 genera. Stevardiinae is an example of a zoological subfamily. Stevardiinae is a large subdivision of the family Characidae ,

147-421: A diverse clade of freshwater fish . This biology article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Acacia sensu lato About 1,300; see list of Acacia species Acacia s.l. (pronounced / ə ˈ k eɪ ʃ ə / or / ə ˈ k eɪ s i ə / ), known commonly as mimosa , acacia , thorntree or wattle , is a polyphyletic genus of shrubs and trees belonging to

196-425: A high sugar content and is sought out by the lesser bushbaby . Acacia karroo gum was once used for making confectionery and traded under the name "Cape Gum". It was also used medicinally to treat cattle suffering poisoning by Moraea species. Acacia species have possible uses in folk medicine . A 19th-century Ethiopian medical text describes a potion made from an Ethiopian species (known as grar ) mixed with

245-465: A number of organic compounds that defend them from pests and grazing animals. Acacia seeds are often used for food and a variety of other products. In Myanmar , Laos , and Thailand , the feathery shoots of Acacia pennata (common name cha-om , ชะอม and su pout ywet in Burmese) are used in soups , curries , omelettes , and stir-fries . Various species of acacia yield gum. True gum arabic

294-499: A reasonable alternative to constructed fences and walls. Acacia farnesiana is used in the perfume industry due to its strong fragrance. The use of acacia as a fragrance dates back centuries. Egyptian mythology has associated the acacia tree with characteristics of the tree of life , such as in the Myth of Osiris and Isis . Several parts (mainly bark, root, and resin) of Acacia species are used to make incense for rituals. Acacia

343-402: A stipe), with many ovules or ovules arranged in two rows. The ovary is attached by a filiform style to a small, capitate stigma. The legume's endocarp is attached to the exocarp, but is otherwise very variable, and may be dehiscent or indehiscent. Seeds are usually elliptic to oblong and flattened to varying degrees. Seeds have a hard black-brown testa (i.e. seed coat) with a pleurogram, visible as

392-719: Is a wide-ranging, polyphyletic tribe of legumes in the Mimosoideae that is native to the tropics , subtropics, and warm-temperate regions. It includes five or six genera and some 1,450 species. In Bentham 's 1842 circumscription of the subfamily Mimosoideae, Acacieae was one of its three constituent tribes, the others being Ingeae Benth. & Hook.f. and Mimoseae Bornn. His Acacieae tribe of 1842 included many genera that were subsequently assigned to tribe Ingeae Benth. In 1875, however, Bentham narrowed his definition of Acacieae so as to include only Acacia Mill. The only morphological character of Acacieae used to distinguish it from

441-466: Is equivocal. It was included in the Acacieae by Vassal (1981) and Maslin et al. (2003), but Lewis & Rico Arce placed it in tribe Ingeae following Polhill (1994) and Luckow et al. (2003). In the latter case, tribe Acacieae may conform to genus Acacia s.l. , pending the latter's relationship to other mimosoid genera. Faidherbia is troublesome as its stamens are shortly united at their base and its pollen

490-581: Is extremely difficult to eradicate. Nineteen different species of Acacia in the Americas contain cyanogenic glycosides , which, if exposed to an enzyme which specifically splits glycosides, can release hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in the "leaves". This sometimes results in the poisoning death of livestock . If fresh plant material spontaneously produces 200 ppm or more HCN, then it is potentially toxic. This corresponds to about 7.5 μmol HCN per gram of fresh plant material. It turns out that, if acacia "leaves" lack

539-646: Is grown in plantations in South Africa and South America . The pods of A. nilotica (under the name of neb-neb ), and of other African species, are also rich in tannin and used by tanners . In Yemen , the principal tannin substance was derived from the leaves of the salam-tree ( Acacia etbaica ), a tree known locally by the name qaraẓ ( garadh ). A bath solution of the crushed leaves of this tree, into which raw leather had been inserted for prolonged soaking, would take only 15 days for curing. The water and leaves, however, required changing after seven or eight days, and

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588-454: Is similar to some taxa in the Ingeae. They are trees, shrubs or lianas, which may be armed or unarmed. Where they have spines, these are modified stipules. In some, prickles arise from the stem's cortex and epidermis. The leaves are bipinnate or are modified to vertically oriented phyllodes. A few have cladodes rather than leaves. Extrafloral nectaries may be present on the petiole and rachis, and

637-531: Is the fever tree . Southern European florists use A. baileyana , A. dealbata , A. pycnantha and A. retinodes as cut flowers and the common name there for them is mimosa. Ornamental species of acacias are also used by homeowners and landscape architects for home security. The sharp thorns of some species are a deterrent to trespassing, and may prevent break-ins if planted under windows and near drainpipes. The aesthetic characteristics of acacia plants, in conjunction with their home security qualities, makes them

686-523: Is the kangaroo-thorn of Australia, and Acacia erioloba (syn. Acacia eriolobata ) is the camelthorn of Africa. Acacia seeds can be difficult to germinate. Research has found that immersing the seeds in various temperatures (usually around 80 °C (176 °F)) and manual seed coat chipping can improve growth to around 80%. In the Central American bullthorn acacias— Acacia sphaerocephala , Acacia cornigera and Acacia collinsii — some of

735-458: Is the product of Acacia senegal , abundant in dry tropical West Africa from Senegal to northern Nigeria . Acacia nilotica (syn. Acacia arabica ) is the gum arabic tree of India , but yields a gum inferior to the true gum arabic. Gum arabic is used in a wide variety of food products, including some soft drinks and confections. The ancient Egyptians used acacia gum in paints. The gum of Acacia xanthophloea and Acacia karroo has

784-485: Is used in incense mainly in India, Nepal, and China including in its Tibet region. Smoke from acacia bark is thought to keep demons and ghosts away and to put the gods in a good mood. Roots and resin from acacia are combined with rhododendron , acorus , cytisus , salvia , and some other components of incense. Both people and elephants like an alcoholic beverage made from acacia fruit. According to Easton's Bible Dictionary,

833-439: The catechin , catechol , and catecholamine chemical families ultimately derived from it. A few species are widely grown as ornamentals in gardens; the most popular perhaps is A. dealbata (silver wattle), with its attractive glaucous to silvery leaves and bright yellow flowers; it is erroneously known as "mimosa" in some areas where it is cultivated, through confusion with the related genus Mimosa . Another ornamental acacia

882-519: The larvae of hepialid moths of the genus Aenetus including A. ligniveren . These burrow horizontally into the trunk then vertically down. Other Lepidoptera larvae which have been recorded feeding on Acacia include brown-tail , Endoclita malabaricus and turnip moth . The leaf-mining larvae of some bucculatricid moths also feed on Acacia ; Bucculatrix agilis feeds exclusively on Acacia horrida and Bucculatrix flexuosa feeds exclusively on Acacia nilotica . Acacias contain

931-626: The subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae . It was described by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773 based on the African species Acacia nilotica . Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny , whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not. All species are pod -bearing, with sap and leaves often bearing large amounts of tannins and condensed tannins that historically found use as pharmaceuticals and preservatives. The genus Acacia constitutes, in its traditional circumspection,

980-704: The Australian and Pacific Islands species, the leaflets are suppressed, and the leaf-stalks ( petioles ) become vertically flattened in order to serve the purpose of leaves. These are known as " phyllodes ". The vertical orientation of the phyllodes protects them from intense sunlight since with their edges towards the sky and earth they do not intercept light as fully as horizontally placed leaves. A few species (such as Acacia glaucoptera ) lack leaves or phyllodes altogether but instead possess cladodes , modified leaf-like photosynthetic stems functioning as leaves. The small flowers have five very small petals, almost hidden by

1029-880: The Book of Exodus, this was used in the construction of the Ark of the Covenant . A. koa from the Hawaiian Islands and A. heterophylla from Réunion are both excellent timber trees. Depending on abundance and regional culture, some Acacia species (e.g. A. fumosa ) are traditionally used locally as firewoods. It is also used to make homes for different animals. In Indonesia (mainly in Sumatra ) and in Malaysia (mainly in Sabah ), plantations of A. mangium are being established to supply pulpwood to

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1078-574: The Ingeae is the presence of free stamens (as in tribe Mimoseae). In the Ingeae they are fused in the form of a tube, whereas in the Acacieae only a few species have the stamens fused at the base. Several characters of the foliage, seeds, seed pods, pollen, and stipules are shared by the two tribes. The flower morphology of Acacia s.l. has characteristics in common with the genera Leucaena , Piptadenia , and Mimosa (tribe Mimoseae) and Enterolobium and Lysiloma (tribe Ingeae). The tribal position of monotypic genus Faidherbia A. Chevalier

1127-478: The International Botanical Congress. That decision has been controversial, and debate continued, with some taxonomists (and many other biologists) deciding to continue to use the traditional Acacia sensu lato circumscription of the genus, in defiance of decisions by an International Botanical Congress. However, a second International Botanical Congress has now confirmed the decision to apply

1176-612: The Mimosoideae form a clade nested with subfamily Caesalpinioideae and the most recent classification by The Legume Phylogeny Working Group refer to them as the Mimosoid clade within subfamily Caesalpinioideae . The group includes about 40 genera and 2,500 species. Some classification systems, for example the Cronquist system, treat the Fabaceae in a narrow sense, raising the Mimisoideae to

1225-460: The Scout movement's Wood Badge training award. In Russia , Italy , and other countries, it is customary to present women with yellow mimosas (among other flowers) on International Women's Day (March 8). These "mimosas" may be from A. dealbata (silver wattle). In 1918, May Gibbs , the popular Australian children's author, wrote the book 'Wattle Babies', in which a third-person narrator describes

1274-598: The acacia tree may be the "burning bush" ( Exodus 3:2) which Moses encountered in the desert. Also, when God gave Moses the instructions for building the Tabernacle , he said to "make an ark" and "a table of acacia wood" (Exodus 25:10 & 23, Revised Standard Version ). Also, in the Christian tradition, Christ's crown of thorns is thought to have been woven from acacia. Acacia was used for Zulu warriors' iziQu (or isiKu) beads, which passed on through Robert Baden-Powell to

1323-594: The ants protect the plant by attacking large mammalian herbivores and stem-boring beetles that damage the plant. The predominantly herbivorous spider Bagheera kiplingi , which is found in Central America and Mexico, feeds on nubs at the tips of the acacia leaves, known as Beltian bodies, which contain high concentrations of protein. These nubs are produced by the acacia as part of a symbiotic relationship with certain species of ant, which also eat them. In Australia, Acacia species are sometimes used as food plants by

1372-603: The binomial names. This was taken up in New Zealand but generally not followed in Australia , where botanists declared more study was needed. Eventually, consensus emerged that Acacia needed to be split as it was not monophyletic. This led to Australian botanists Bruce Maslin and Tony Orchard pushing for the retypification of the genus with an Australian species instead of the original African type species, an exception to traditional rules of priority that required ratification by

1421-400: The corolla lobes), and their filaments are sometimes connate at their base (forming a short stemonozone). Male flowers of some Neotropical species have a reduced staminal tube (cf. A. albicorticata , A. hindsii , A. farnesiana , and S. picachensis ). Flowers are usually yellow or cream-coloured, but may be white, red, or purple. The ovary is sessile or stipitate (i.e. supported by

1470-818: The genus Acacia was recently segregated into five genera ( Acacia sensu stricto , Acaciella , Mariosousa , Senegalia , and Vachellia ). The following fossil wood morphogenera have been described: Modern molecular phylogenetics suggests the following relationships: Diptychandra Moldenhawera Pachyelasma Erythrophleum Chidlowia Adenanthera Group Pentaclethra Newtonia Group Plathymenia Entada Group Cylicodiscus Prosopis Group Mimozyganthus Group Neptunia Leucaena Group Dichrostachys Group Vachellia Parkia Group Piptadenia Group Senegalia Parasenegalia Mariosousa Abarema Group Ingeae Grade Pithecellobium Group Paraserianthes Austroacacia Acacieae ( Dumort. , 1829)

1519-488: The leather needed to be turned over daily. Some Acacia species are valuable as timber, such as A. melanoxylon (blackwood) from Australia , which attains a great size; its wood is used for furniture, and takes a high polish; and A. omalophylla (myall wood, also Australian), which yields a fragrant timber used for ornaments. A. seyal is thought to be the shittah-tree of the Bible , which supplied shittim-wood. According to

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1568-532: The lives of imaginary inhabitants of the Australian forests (the 'bush'). The main characters are the Wattle Babies, who are tiny people that look like acacia flowers and who interact with various forest creatures. Gibbs wrote "Wattle Babies are the sunshine of the Bush. In Winter, when the sky is grey and all the world seems cold, they put on their yellowest clothes and come out, for they have such cheerful hearts." Gibbs

1617-689: The long stamens , and are arranged in dense, globular or cylindrical clusters; they are yellow or cream-colored in most species, whitish in some, or even purple ( Acacia purpureopetala ) or red ( Acacia leprosa 'Scarlet Blaze' ). Acacia flowers can be distinguished from those of a large related genus, Albizia , by their stamens, which are not joined at the base. Also, unlike individual Mimosa flowers, those of Acacia have more than ten stamens. The plants often bear spines, especially those species growing in arid regions. These sometimes represent branches that have become short, hard, and pungent, though they sometimes represent leaf- stipules . Acacia armata

1666-416: The major clades of which may have formed in response to drying trends and fire regimes that accompanied increased seasonality during the late Oligocene to early Miocene (~25  mya ). Pedley (1978), following Vassal (1972), viewed Acacia as comprising three large subgenera, but subsequently (1986) raised the rank of these groups to genera Acacia , Senegalia ( s.l. ) and Racosperma , which

1715-492: The majority of the Australian species and a few native to southeast Asia, Réunion , and Pacific Islands . Most of the species outside Australia, and a small number of Australian species, are classified into Vachellia and Senegalia . The two final genera, Acaciella and Mariosousa , each contain about a dozen species from the Americas (but see " Classification " below for the ongoing debate concerning their taxonomy). English botanist and gardener Philip Miller adopted

1764-563: The most globally significant invasive acacias is black wattle A. mearnsii , which is taking over grasslands and abandoned agricultural areas worldwide, especially in moderate coastal and island regions where mild climate promotes its spread. Australian/New Zealand Weed Risk Assessment gives it a "high risk, score of 15" rating and it is considered one of the world's 100 most invasive species. Extensive ecological studies should be performed before further introduction of acacia varieties, as this fast-growing genus, once introduced, spreads quickly and

1813-569: The name Acacia to the mostly Australian plants, which some had been calling Racosperma , and which had formed the overwhelming majority of Acacia sensu lato . Debate continues regarding the traditional acacias of Africa, possibly placed in Senegalia and Vachellia , and some of the American species, possibly placed in Acaciella and Mariosousa . Acacias belong to the subfamily Mimosoideae ,

1862-459: The name Acacia in 1754. The generic name is derived from ἀκακία ( akakia ), the name given by early Greek botanist-physician Pedanius Dioscorides (middle to late first century) to the medicinal tree A. nilotica in his book Materia Medica . This name derives from the Ancient Greek word for its characteristic thorns, ἀκίς ( akis ; "thorn"). The species name nilotica

1911-469: The offending plants' leaves with their jaws and ultimately killing them. Other associated ant species appear to do nothing to benefit their hosts. Similar mutualisms with ants occur on Acacia trees in Africa, such as the whistling thorn acacia. The acacias provide shelter for ants in similar swollen stipules and nectar in extrafloral nectaries for their symbiotic ants, such as Crematogaster mimosae . In turn,

1960-639: The paper industry. Acacia wood pulp gives high opacity and below average bulk paper . This is suitable in lightweight offset papers used for Bibles and dictionaries. It is also used in paper tissue where it improves softness. Acacias can be planted for erosion control, especially after mining or construction damage. For the same reasons it is favored as an erosion-control plant, with its easy spreading and resilience, some varieties of acacia are potentially invasive species. At least fourteen Acacia species introduced to South Africa are categorized as invasive, due to their naturally aggressive propagation. One of

2009-638: The pinnule tips may carry protein-lipid Beltian bodies . The leaflets are usually opposite, and are carried on shortly stalks or are sessile. The heartwood is typically red and hard, and the sap of various species hardens into gum. The inflorescences are dense pedunculate heads or spikes borne in axillary clusters, or are aggregated in terminal panicles. The tetra- or pentamerous flowers are uniformly bisexual, or male and bisexual. Sepals are connate (i.e. fused) and valvate (i.e. not overlapping). The reduced petals are valvate, or rarely absent. The flowers have numerous exserted (i.e. protruding) stamens (>2× as many as

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2058-407: The rank of family as Mimosaceae. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group treats Fabaceae in the broad sense. The Mimosoideae were historically subdivided into four tribes (Acacieae, Ingeae, Mimoseae, and Mimozygantheae). However, modern molecular phylogenetics has shown that these groupings were artificial. Several informal subgroups have been proposed, but not yet described formally as tribes. Additionally,

2107-418: The root of the tacha , then boiled, as a cure for rabies . An astringent medicine high in tannins , called catechu or cutch, is procured from several species, but more especially from Senegalia catechu (syn. Acacia catechu ), by boiling down the wood and evaporating the solution so as to get an extract. The catechu extract from A. catechu figures in the history of chemistry in giving its name to

2156-506: The second largest genus in Fabaceae ( Astragalus being the largest), with roughly 1,300 species , about 960 of them native to Australia, with the remainder spread around the tropical to warm- temperate regions of both hemispheres, including Europe , Africa, southern Asia , and the Americas (see List of Acacia species ). The genus was divided into five separate genera under the tribe " Acacieae ". The genus now called Acacia represents

2205-500: The specific glycoside-splitting enzyme, then they may be less toxic than otherwise, even those containing significant quantities of cyanic glycosides. Some Acacia species containing cyanogens include Acacia erioloba , A. cunninghamii , A. obtusifolia , A. sieberiana , and A. sieberiana var. woodii The Arbre du Ténéré in Niger was the most isolated tree in the world, about 400 km (249 mi) from any other tree. The tree

2254-419: The spiny stipules are large, swollen and hollow. These afford shelter for several species of Pseudomyrmex ants, which feed on extrafloral nectaries on the leaf-stalk and small lipid -rich food-bodies at the tips of the leaflets called Beltian bodies . In return, the ants add protection to the plant against herbivores . Some species of ants will also remove competing plants around the acacia, cutting off

2303-466: Was given by Linnaeus from this tree's best-known range along the Nile river. This became the type species of the genus. The traditional circumscription of Acacia eventually contained approximately 1,300 species. However, evidence began to accumulate that the genus as described was not monophyletic . Queensland botanist Les Pedley proposed the subgenus Phyllodineae be renamed Racosperma and published

2352-532: Was referring to the fact that an abundance of acacias flower in August in Australia, in the midst of the southern hemisphere winter. The bark of various Australian species, known as wattles, is very rich in tannin and forms an important article of export; important species include A. pycnantha (golden wattle), A. decurrens (tan wattle), A. dealbata (silver wattle) and A. mearnsii (black wattle). Black wattle

2401-518: Was underpinned by later genetic studies. In common parlance, the term "acacia" is occasionally applied to species of the genus Robinia , which also belongs in the pea family. Robinia pseudoacacia , an American species locally known as black locust, is sometimes called "false acacia" in cultivation in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe. The leaves of acacias are compound pinnate in general. In some species, however, more especially in

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