Vachellia kirkii

Last updated

Vachellia kirkii
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Clade: Mimosoideae
Genus: Vachellia
Species:
V. kirkii
Binomial name
Vachellia kirkii
(Oliv.) Kyal. & Boatwr. [1]
Synonyms
  • Acacia kirkiiOliv.

Vachellia kirkii, widely known as Acacia kirkii but now attributed to the genus Vachellia , [2] is a tree native to tropical Africa. It is commonly known as the flood plain acacia. [3]

Vachellia kirkii is a multi-trunked shrub or tree. It has a spreading, flat-topped crown, growing from 2.5 to 15 meters in height, and occasionally to 18 meters. [4]

Vachellia kirkii ranges across tropical Africa, from Guinea through Mali, the DR Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Its habitat includes woodland, savanna, and mixed scrubland. It occurs often in seasonally-flooded areas near rivers and lakes, including groundwater forests, swamp forests, and flooded savannas, on nutrient-rich silty and clay soils. It ranges in elevation from sea level to 1,980 metres. [5]

The species is named for John Kirk, who accompanied David Livingstone on his 1858 Zambezi expedition.

Related Research Articles

Veld African landscape

Veld, also spelled veldt, is a type of wide open rural landscape in Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Botswana. A certain sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa has been officially defined as the Bushveld by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Trees are found only in a few places—frost, fire and grazing animals allow grass to grow but prevent the growth of trees.

<i>Vachellia tortilis</i> Species of plant

Vachellia tortilis, widely known as Acacia tortilis but now attributed to the genus Vachellia, is the umbrella thorn acacia, also known as umbrella thorn and Israeli babool, a medium to large canopied tree native to most of Africa, primarily to the savanna and Sahel of Africa, but also occurring in the Middle East.

<i>Vachellia nilotica</i> Species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae

Vachellia nilotica is a flowering plant tree in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. It is also a Weed of National Significance in Australia as well as a Federal Noxious Weed in the United States.

Acacia sieberiana species of plant

Vachellia sieberiana, until recently known as Acacia sieberiana and commonly known as the paperbark thorn or paperbark acacia, is a tree native to southern Africa and introduced into Pakistan. It is used in many areas for various purposes. The tree varies from 3 to 25 m in height, with a trunk diameter of 0.6 to 1.8 m. It is not listed as being a threatened species.

<i>Vachellia xanthophloea</i> species of plant

Vachellia xanthophloea is a tree in the family Fabaceae, commonly known in English as the fever tree. This species of Vachellia is native to eastern and southern Africa. It has also become a landscape tree in other warm climates, outside of its natural range.

Prunus javanica is a species of plant in the family Rosaceae. It is found in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar.

Uvariodendron pycnophyllum is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is endemic to Tanzania.

<i>Vachellia drepanolobium</i> species of plant

Vachellia drepanolobium, commonly known as whistling thorn, is a swollen-thorn acacia native to East Africa. The whistling thorn grows up to 6 meters tall. It produces a pair of straight spines at each node, some of which have large bulbous bases. These swollen spines are naturally hollow and occupied by any one of several symbiotic ant species. The common name of the plant is derived from the observation that when wind blows over bulbous spines in which ants have made entry/exit holes, they create a whistling noise.

<i>Vachellia</i> genus of plants

Vachellia is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, commonly known as thorn trees or acacias. It belongs to the subfamily Mimosoideae. Its species were considered members of genus Acacia until 2009. Vachellia can be distinguished from other acacias by its capitate inflorescences and spinescent stipules. Before discovery of the New World, Europeans in the Mediterranean region were familiar with several species of Vachellia, which they knew as sources of medicine, and had names for them that they inherited from the Greeks and Romans.

<i>Vachellia reficiens</i> species of plant

Vachellia reficiens, commonly known as red-bark acacia, red thorn, false umbrella tree, or false umbrella thorn, is a deciduous tree or shrub of the pea family (Fabaceae) native to southern Africa, often growing in an upside-down cone shape and with a relatively flat crown.

<i>Ficus sansibarica</i> species of plant

The Knobbly fig is an African species of cauliflorous fig. It is named after Zanzibar, where Franz Stuhlmann discovered it in 1889. They often begin life as epiphytes, which assume a strangling habit as they develop. They regularly reach 10 m, but may grow up to 40 m tall as forest stranglers.

<i>Vachellia flava</i> species of plant

Vachellia flava, synonym Acacia ehrenbergiana, is a species of drought-resistant bush or small tree, commonly known as salam in Arabic. It is found in the Sahara, the northern Sahel, parts of East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.

<i>Baikiaea insignis</i> species of plant

Baikiaea insignis is a species of legume in the family Fabaceae.

<i>Lannea coromandelica</i> species of plant

Lannea coromandelica, also known as the Indian ash tree, is a species of tree in the family Anacardiaceae that grows in South and Southeast Asia, ranging from Sri Lanka to Southern China.. Its commonly known as Gurjon tree and is used in plywoods for its excellent termite resistance properties. It most commonly grows in exposed dry woodland environments, where the tree is smaller and more crooked. In more humid environments it is a larger spreading tree that can become 20 meters tall. In Sri Lanka Lannea coromandelica often grows on rock outcrops or inselbergs.

Dialium ovoideum species of plant

Dialium ovoideum is a tropical species of legume in the family Fabaceae. It is endemic to Sri Lanka. The Sinhala name ගල් සියඹලා means Pebble Tamarind . The Tamil name பட்டு புளியம் பழம் means Silky Tamarind which is named after the silky texture of the shell of the fruit..

<i>Tabebuia heterophylla</i> species of plant

Tabebuia heterophylla is a species of tree native to the Caribbean, including the Swan Islands of Honduras, and is also cultivated. It is also known as pink manjack, pink trumpet tree, white cedar, and whitewood.

Newtonia buchananii is a species of legume in the family Fabaceae.

May Beati (exclosure) Exclosure for woodland restoration in Ethiopia

May Be’ati is an exclosure located in the Dogu'a Tembien woreda of the Tigray Region in Ethiopia. The area has been protected since 1968 by the local community.

The Sango Bay forests are distinctive forests found in southwestern Uganda, near the border with Tanzania. The Sango Bay forests grow on seasonally-flooded lowlands near on the lower reaches of the Kagera River, just west of where it empties into Lake Victoria.

Mimusops laurifolia is a large evergreen tree, native to the Ethiopian Highlands and the highlands of southeastern Arabian Peninsula.

References

  1. "Vachellia kirkii". Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2020-03-28. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Vachellia+kirkii>
  2. "Vachellia kirkii". Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2020-03-28. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Vachellia+kirkii>
  3. Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2020). Flora of Zimbabwe: Species information: Acacia kirkii subsp. kirkii var. kirkii. https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/species.php?species_id=126000, retrieved 28 March 2020
  4. "Vachellia kirkii". Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2020-03-28. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Vachellia+kirkii>
  5. "Vachellia kirkii". Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2020-03-28. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Vachellia+kirkii>