Sticky Acacia

borleae: named after Mrs Jeanne Borle (born 1880), wife of a Swiss missionary, who collected the type specimen in southern Mozambique.

Usually a multi-stemmed shrub up to c. 3 m high, rarely a small slender tree up to 5 m. Bark dark reddish-brown; young branches with numerous pale reddish, often sticky glands. Spines paired at the nodes, slender, straight or slightly deflexed, whitish, up to 5 cm long. Leaves alternate, bi-pinnate with 5-10 pairs of pinnae, each with 5-15 pairs of leaflets. Leaflets yellowish-green, 1.5-6.5 mm long with numerous small sticky glands; margins appearing scalloped, due to the presence of the glands; petiole up to 2 cm long without a gland but often with a distinct gland between the lowest pair of pinnae. Flowers in axillary clusters of small bright yellow balls. Pod distinctly curved, sometimes almost forming a circle, slender, up to 8 cm long, constricted between the seeds, covered in reddish sticky glands, dehiscent.

Locally common

Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.