Acacia heterophylla

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Highland Tamarind
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
Clade: Mimosoid clade
Genus: Acacia
Species:
A. heterophylla
Binomial name
Acacia heterophylla
(
Willd.
Synonyms

Acacia brevipes

A.Cunn.

Acacia xiphoclada Baker
Mimosa heterophylla Lam.[1]

Acacia heterophylla, the highland tamarind,[2] is a tree (or shrub in its higher places) endemic to Réunion island where it is commonly named tamarin des hauts[1] The tree has a juvenile stage where its leaves have a pinnate arrangement, but in the adult stage the leaves diminish and the phyllode becomes the dominant photosynthetic structure.

It has been introduced into Madagascar[3] where it grows in a subhumid climate at an altitude of about 500–1000 m above sea level.[3]

Genetic sequence analysis has shown its closest relative is

sister species, Acacia melanoxylon; the means of dispersal to Hawaii and then to Réunion (the latter trip a distance of 18,000 km) is thought to have been seed-carrying by birds such as petrels (the seeds of these species are not adapted for prolonged immersion in seawater).[5] Both species also have very similar ecological niches, which differ from that of A. melanoxylon.[5]

Acacia heterophylla flowers
A. heterophylla wood

References

  1. ^ a b Catalogue of Life : 2007 Annual Checklist : Acacia heterophylla (Lam.)Willd. Archived September 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Forestry Abstracts, University of Oxford Commonwealth Forestry Bureau, p.327, 1939
  3. ^ a b "Acacia heterophylla". Madagascar Catalogue – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  4. PMID 24943937
    .
  5. ^
    PMID 24942529
    .

External links

Media related to Acacia heterophylla at Wikimedia Commons


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