Common Name

Cutch Tree

Family

Fabaceae

Distribution

Introduced into the N.T. from Asia and now naturalised and spreading in and around Darwin.

Description

Tree to 6 m high. Bark brown, fissured. Branchlets glabrous or almost so; prickles in pairs at nodes or sometimes absent, slightly recurved or ±straight, to 5 mm long. Stipules caducous, inconspicuous. Leaves: petiole mostly 1.5-5 cm long, with a raised oblong or discoid gland; rachis mostly 6-12 cm long, with a gland usually present at junction of each of top 1 or 2 pairs of pinnae; pinnae mostly 12-20 pairs; pinnules mostly 30-50 pairs per pinna, narrowly oblong to linear, 3-6 mm long, glabrous throughout or ciliate. Inflorescences spicate, axillary, solitary or fascicled. Flowers yellowish white; calyx cupular, less than half as long as corolla, glabrous. Pods oblong, straight or almost so, 6-12 cm long, 1.5-2 cm wide, dehiscent. Seeds not seen.

Specimens

N.T.: near Botanic Gardens, Darwin, N.T.Byrnes 2199 (DNA); Bullocky Point, Darwin, M.O.Rankin 2583 (DNA); Gilruth Ave, Darwin, M.O.Rankin 2688 (CANB, DNA, MEL, NSW, PERTH).

Notes

Based on molecular and other data Acacia sens. lat. is now considered as comprising a number of segregate genera, see J.T.Miller & D.S.Seigler, Austral. Syst. Bot. 25: 217-224 (2012) for overview. Many taxa in the former Acacia subg. Aculeiferum are now referable to the genus Senegalia, including the one presented here that was treated as A. catechu var. sundra by J.H.Ross (l.c.). See B.R.Maslin (l.c.) for notes on the taxonomy and the complex nomenclatural history of this species.

The closely related S. polyacantha (Willd.) Seigler & Ebinger of Asia and Africa differs in having whitish bark and the calyx almost as long as the corolla. Information on lifecycle, dispersal, plant properties, etc. is given by W.T.Parsons & E.G.Cuthbertson, Noxious Weeds of Australia 434 (1992).

FOA Reference

Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 11A (2001), 11B (2001) and 12 (1998), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia

Author

Revised by B.R.Maslin

J.H.Ross