Acacia tortilis

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Photographs by: Dr. Maulik Gadani

Habit : A small to moderate - sized tree with well developed trunk and spreading or irregular crown.
Stem :
- Bark is grey or black, fissured, young branches glabrous or pubescent becoming brown to purplish black.
- Stipules spinescent, some short, hooked and up to 5 mm long mixed with long, straight whitish ones longer.
Leaves : Rachis short 2 cm long or less, pinnae 2 - 10 pairs, 2 - 17 mm long, leaflets 6 - 19 pairs,usually small glabrous or pubescent.
Inflorescence : Flowers in axillary heads.
Flowers :
- Flowers small, dirty white in heads on 0.4 - 2.4 m long peduncles.
- complete, actinomorphic, hermaphrodite, highly aromatic.
Fruits : Pods contorted or spirally twisted, longitudinally veined, usually 7.5 cm long, 0.6 cm broad, glabrous or appressed pubescent without glands.
Seeds : Olive to red brown, smooth, elliptic, compressed, coiled into a springlike structure.
Flowering and Fruiting time : August - April
Significance :
- The wood is used mainly for firewood and charcoal and also for local building.
- Timber from the tree is used for furniture, wagon wheels, fence posts, cages and pens.
- The leaves and pods provide fodder for desert grazing animals.
- Bark is used for cordage.