Vachellia xanthophloea (Benth.) P.J.H.Hurter

Tree up to 30 m high with a rounded or flattened and somewhat spreading crown. Bark on trunk lemon to greenish-yellow, flaking minutely, becoming powdery, dark brown to black where damaged; young branchlets lemon to greenish-yellow, powdery, glabrous or subglabrous, young extremities brown to plum-coloured but the outer layer soon flaking off to reveal the greenish-yellow inner layer. Stipules spinescent, in pairs, 0.9-8.5 cm long, straight or almost so; 'ant-galls' and other prickles absent. Leaves: petiole 0.1-1.5 cm long, glabrous to sparingly pubescent, adaxial gland usually present, variable in position, up to 1.5 x 1 mm; rhachis (0)2.5-7 cm long, glabrous to sparingly pubescent, a gland often present at the junction of the top 1-2 pinna pairs; pinnae (1)3-6(8) pairs; rhachillae 0.3-3 cm long; leaflets 8-17 pairs per pinna, 2.5-6.5 x 0.75-1.75 mm, linear to linear-oblong, apex rounded to acute or mucronate, margins usually without cilia, glabrous beneath, lateral nerves invisible beneath. Inflorescences capitate, usually 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 yellow-barked twigs. Flowers bright yellow (at least in our area), sessile; peduncles 0.8-2.9 cm long, sparingly to densely pubescent or subglabrous, glandular chiefly below the involucel but sometimes also above; involucel basal to about halfway up the peduncle, conspicuous, 2-4 mm long. Calyx glabrous or sometimes lobes very sparingly puberulous, tube 0.8-1.6 mm long, lobes minute, up to 0.2 mm long. Corolla often deep pink to purplish apically especially when in bud, glabrous, tube 2.4-3.2 mm long, lobes up to 0.5 mm long. Stamen-filaments free, up to 7 mm long; anthers with a deciduous apical gland. Ovary up to 1.8 mm long, sessile, with few to many long glandular hairs. Pods yellowish-brown to brown, 3.4-13.5 x 0.7-1.4 cm, linear-oblong, straight or slightly curved, ± moniliform irregularly constricted between some of the seeds, the segments mostly ± as long as wide, indehiscent, breaking up transversely into segments after being shed, valves thin, coriaceous, reticulate-venose, glabrous or almost so, eglandular or sparingly glandular. Seeds olive to blackish-olive, 4.5-6.5 x 3.5-5 mm, subcircular to elliptic, compressed; areole 3-4.5 x 2-3 mm.

Swampy localities and riverine forest, often on flood plains or in depressions, at elevations up to 2,100 metres. It often grows on alluvial black clay soils.

Plants can be grown from seeds. They have a reasonable germination rate. Seed that have been stored should be soaked in water for 24 hours.