Acacia trees

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Acacia trees

Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae. Acacias are also known as thorntrees, whistling thorns or wattles, including the yellow-fever acacia and umbrella acacias. The genus Acacia previously contained roughly 1300 species, about 960 of them native to Australia, with the remainder spread around the tropical to warm-temperate regions of both hemispheres, including Europe, Africa, southern Asia, and the Americas.
Acacia seeds are often used for food and a variety of other products. The leaves of acacias are compound pinnate in general. The plants often bear spines, especially those species growing in arid regions. These sometimes represent branches which have become short, hard and pungent, or sometimes leaf-stipules.