It is a tree 5-20 m high with a dense spheric crown, stems and branches usually dark to black coloured, fissured bark, grey-pinkish slash, exuding a reddish low quality gum. The tree has thin, straight, light, grey spines in axillary pairs, usually in 3 to 12 pairs, 5 to 7.5 cm long in young trees, mature trees commonly without thorns. The leaves are bipinnate, with 3-6 pairs of pinnulae and 10-30 pairs of leaflets each, tomentose, rachis with a gland at the bottom of the last pair of pinnulae. Flowers in globulous heads 1.2-1.5 cm in diameter of a bright golden-yellow color, set up either axillary or whorly on peduncles 2-3 cm long located at the end of the branches.
Genus - Acacia
Species - Arabica
Common name - Gum Arabic Tree
Pre-Treatment - Not-required
Hardiness zones - 9 - 10
Height - 20m
Spread - 10m
Plant type - Large Tree
Vegetation type - Evergreen
Exposure - Full Sun
Growth rate - Medium
Water requirements - Average Water
Landscape uses - Feature Plant
Germination rate - 75%
Leaf / Flower color - Green / Golden yellow
Useful Info | |
Germination | 1. Pour boiling water over seed, let stand in water for 24 hours, repeat process on seed that did not imbibe. It is called scarification. 2. Sow seed 1/4" (~3-5mm) deep, tamp the soil, mulch the seed bed. The seed germinates in 3 - 4 weeks at 25°C. As soon as the seedlings are large enough to handle, prick them out into individual pots and grow them on in a sunny position in the greenhouse for their first winter. Plant them out in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts, and consider giving them some protection from the cold for their first winter outdoors. Cuttings of half-ripe wood with a heel, July/August in individual pots in a frame. Overwinter in a greenhouse for the first winter and plant out in their permanent positions in late spring or early summer. |