Common Names: Sweet Thorn, xxx
Family: Fabaceae (Legume Family) Mimosoideae
 
Growth Form, Habitat and Distribution 
A small to medium-sized evergreen tree with upward spreading branches giving a dense, rounded crown. Confined to the central parts of Zambia usually in Munga and riverine woodland and occasionally in Miombo woodland, but mostly on good loamy soils
Size     Height up to 20m, usually 4 to 5m, spread 6 to 12m.
Bark    Young branches are distinctly orange-red and smooth, becoming dark brown, rough and fissured when older. Spines are whitish with dark tips, opposite, straight, up to 5 cm long, long straight paired at the nodes. 
Leaves    Alternate, compound, bipinnate, with 2 to 5 pairs of pinnae, each with 8 to 20 pairs of small (4 to 7mm) dark green leaflets. Petiole short.
Flowers    Fragrant, small, bright golden yellow, in loose axillary or terminal balls on long stems (up to 5cm), clustered at the ends of branches, November to February.
Fruit     Slender, distinctively sickle-shaped, thinly woody, dehiscent, red-brown with a purplish bloom, woody, pods (up to 16cm), partly constricted between seeds, ripening January onwards, splitting on the tree to release 5 to 8 flat, brown seeds.
Uses    A very good “bee tree”. Also providing good fodder for browsers  The inner bark makes a good rope and the red gum is edible. Also a quick-yielding wood producer. Makes a good garden tree, growing easily from seed, but does drop its thorns. 
Other species in Zambia: 28 other Acacia species and 8 sub-species.