News

January/Februray 2017

This month we traveled again to Namibia visiting the hot central area and the subtropical Caprivi-strip:

http://acacia-world.net/index.php/africa-me/namibia/namibia-2017

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May/June 2016

until now nobody answered to my suggestion to hand over this website to a younger person who is willing to continue the work.

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April 2016

From Mr. Jim Conrad I received three photos of Vachellia mayana, which he found in Yucatan, Mexico. The plant shows the characteristic big thorns.

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December 2015

Only now I received a copy of the description of a new species in South Africa by Dr. Norbert Hahn:

Senegalia lotterii, Phytotaxa 119(1):51-54 (2013). It is characterized by its paired prickles pointing straight ahead or slightly upwards one of which is often lost due to malfunction. Its a distinct edaphic entity endemic to the Barberton Centre of Endemism.

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November 2015

In South Africa there are no myrmecophilous Acacias. Nevertheless some species form the inflated thorns, namely Vachellia erioloba, Vachellia luederitzii var. retinens, and - rarely - Vachellia karroo, see:

http://acacia-world.net/index.php/africa-me/south-africa/vachellia-karroo-s-l

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July - October 2015

I am thinking about giving up this site. May be someone is interested to continue?

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June 2015 East and Southeast Asian survey

Bruce Maslin has published a synoptic overview of Acacia sunsu lato. In this paper he also describes the developments leading to the split of Acacia sensu lato into 5 genera. The indigenous flora of this region consists of 52 species, 32 species of Senegalia, 12 Acacia and 8 Vachellia.I could correct some of my tables. For example, Acacia heterophylla was recently shown by Le Roux et al. (2014) to be conspecific with the Hawaian species A. koa.

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May 2015 Acacia plantations

One argument to reserve the Genus name Acacia for the Australia Acacias was the enormous amount of trees being cultivated in many countries, mainly in Asia, for wood production. Info on this topic can be found in the publications of ACIAR ( The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research):

http://www.cifor.org/forestsasia/role-acacias/

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April 2015 New species
From ASG128.p.8: Acacia oshanesii is a species found in north eastern NSW and south east Queensland, and it was previously believed that there was a southern variant of this species, along the south coast of NSW about 450­-500 km from north eastern NSW. The southern variant has now been determined to be a separate species, and this has been named as Acacia yalwalensis.

March 2015

Mr. Jim Conrad has provided pictures from two Mexican species: Vachellia californica and Senegalia gaumeri. They can also be seen on his homepage:

http://www.backyardnature.net/yucatan/gaumer-a.htm

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January/February 2015

We have again visited the NE of South Africa in the beginning of 2015. In the (wet) savanna near Mokopane I photographed a multistemmed tree, that was finally identified as Vachellia robusta ssp. robusta. Instead of long thorns it has only short bent thorns - what had confused me at first. Also the reddish tint on the edges of the leaflets (see pictures on entrance page) made me cosider Senegalia erubescens. But may be the reddish tone comes from the mucro of the rachis, which is red according to J.D.Carr.

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November/December 2014

In the standard Tree Guide of South Africa (Palgrave) 12 Acacia species are mentioned as Alien Invasive Species.

In the poular website www.ispot.org.za, people show photos of their "observation" of these invasive species. The ones mentioned most are A. elata, A. saligna and A. longifolia. Then there are A. cyclops, A. dealbata, A. decurrens, A. mearnsii, A. melanoxylon, A. pycnantha, A. podalyriifolia, A.paradoxa and A. stricta. Not so often observed are A. baileyana and A. cultriformis.

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The total number of Acacia s.l. in my table on the first page of this website climbs to 1430:

In Nuytsia 24 (2014) Bruce Maslin published 17 new Acacia species from Australia. They are nearly all shrubs living in dry areas. Often only one population with several members has been found to date.

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September 2014

Mr. Gilbert confirmed that th sample he collected in 1971 did nor show thorns or prickles and that such a plant species has never been found again. There remains only the mentioned Herbarium sample in Kew. He still maintains it was an Acacia. I would have preferred if this sample would not have been renamed to Senegalia  pseudonigrescens.

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August 2014 - Phantom Acacia

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July 2014

Recently 21 new combinations in Vachellia and Senegalia for South and West Asia have been published in Phytotaxa. The text is partly available here:

http://biotaxa.org/Phytotaxa/article/view/phytotaxa.162.3.6

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In the last two month I worked in the South African Database ispot, where I added a lot of my Acacia s.l. pictures from South Africa and Namibia, looked at the existing observations and revised some. From this work my own website also profited. In contrast to the Dendrological Society of South Africa, this website has accepted/introduced the new nomenclature.

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In April I reviewed  the situation concerning the split of Vachelli karroo s.l. into a group of species, the "Vachellia Karroo-complex". In my opinion this split-up led to the situation, that a big part of V. karroo-species are not any more covered by the new definitions, because they are big trees, have more than 5 pair of pinnae and are in areas not covered by the newly definded species. I have sent out my comments to several people, who might be concerned, e.g. the Dendrological Society of South Africa and the authors of the website Flora of Zimbabwe.

From Prof. Norbert Hahn I received the notion, that those trees were formerly covered under Acacia karroo var. transvaalensis (Burtt Davy) Burtt Davy. This would be a way to solve the a.m. problem: introduction of a Vachellia karroo subspecies with more than 5 pair of pinnae.

May be some more answers will be coming.

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April 2014

Thirteen new Acacia species from Western Australia have been described, see:

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March 2014

The list on Asian Species has been updated according to two new publications.

Please see my travel report of the visit to Limpopo/South Africa in January 2014.

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February 2014

There are always dicussions about the cold-stability of Acacias. I think, that in Middle-Europe, where I live, there is no long-term chance for Acacia to survive outdoors. In the Forum of baumkunde.de, there is a discussion in German, with some links, see:
http://www.baumkunde.de/forum/viewtopic.php?p=88750#88750

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January 2014

In January I visited South Africa again, spending most time in Limpopo province. On the first day I encountered some Vachellia karro near Roodevallei in the vicinity of Pretoria. They were heavily covered with sporulating Ravenelia galls.

December 2013

In the latest newsletter of the Acacia Study Group (ASG 123) two new species of Acacia from Australia are mentioned: Acacia alaticaulis and Acacia kulnurensis, belonging to Acacia section Botrycephalae and allied to Acacia terminalis. Both species are rare with restricted distribution north of Sydney.

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November 2013

Mr. Malte Ebinghaus from the Ruhr-University in Bochum is working on the systematics and distribution of South African Ravenelia that often grow on Acacia.

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October 2013

While editing the names of the African species according to Kyalangalilwa et.al. (see Sept.), I observed:

- New species Senegalia cinerea, formerly a synonym of S. fleckii.

- New species Senegalia senegalensis, formerly a subspecies of S. senegal.

- Species Vachellia flava, formerly a synonym of V. ehrenbergiana. The latter is now cited as the synonym.

- Vachellia montana P.P.Swartz - formerly not accepted as Acacia montana and renamed A. theronii because there exists an Australian species: Acacia montana.
I try to solve this name question.

- I had not listed the following species before:
Senegalia petrensis
Vachellia latispina
Vachellia origena
Vachellia tephrophylla.

I will check for relevant literature.

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September 2013

In a recent paper (Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013) from South Africa (see literature under Kyalangalilwa) the "Phylogenetic position and revised classification of Acacia s.l. (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae) in Africa, including new combinations in Vachellia and Senegalia" has been published. I will now adapt my website to the new names of the 61 African Senegalia and 77 African Vachellia species mentioned.

August 2013:

The Ecological Botanical Garden Bayreuth/Germany has a collection of potted Acacias, where I found e.g. Acacia heterophylla, an endemic from Reunion.

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July 2013:

Mr. Nicolas Raab Ram received his Master degree at the Pontifica Universade Catolica de Chile with his thesis "Comparison of three Empirical Stomatal Conductance Models in Acacia caven (Mol.) under Drought Conditions"

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June 2013: Bruce Maslin updated the WATTLE key on the web at LucidCentral: http://www.lucidcentral.org/

he writes: "The update is called WATTLE2 and it includes 1223 taxa of Acacia sens. lat. that occur in Australia ; this is 58 more taxa than in the 2001 version of WATTLE that was published on CD. WATTLE2 includes all formally described taxa of Acacia sens. str., Acaciella, Vachellia and Senegalia, together with Phrase Name taxa and common hybrid entities where these exist in the public domain accompanied by a description. If you detect error in WATTLE2 I would love to hear about them because I plan to maintain the currency of the data and provide regular updates." 

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April/May 2013 : further pictures from the Acacia Study Group of the Australian Plant Society have been added.

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March 2013
from the leader of the Acacia Study group (ASG) of the Australian Plant Society (APS), Bill Aitchison, I received a CD with numerous pictures of Australian Acacia. They will be incorporated into the website as I have time. Today I added photos of Acacia acuminata, A. amblygona and A. aulacocarpa.

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February 2013
During my recent trip to South Africa I observed a lort of different modifications/enates/galls on Acacia tortilis and Acacia gerrardii. Pictures are shown under Diseases.

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Welcome to 2013. We will keep on looking after the Acacias

November/December 2012

Start of the new website!!
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October 2012

Bruce Maslin et.al. have studied the Mulga-complex in Australia - and defined 12 separate species, seven of them new. (ASG News 118)
During my last visit to the Botanical Garden in Bochum/Germany, I took pictures of myrmecophilous Vachellias. This induced me to look again at a species I found in Costa Rica and had thought to be V. melanoceras. Prof. Dave Seigler identified the species as Vachellia ruddiae.
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August/September 2012

Actually I am working on the relaunch of my website based on a modern CMS, which has many new features - including an internal search function. I hope to publish it in November this year.

July 2012

The list of Acacia in China has been updated.

In the Greenhouse of the Bot.Garden of St. Petersbur/Russia I fotographed A. neriifolia anjd A. ulicifolia

June 2012

Bruce Maslin described another new species: Acacia bartlei. It is closely related to A. redolens, Phyllodineae, sec. Plurinerves.

May 2012

Ther are pictures lacking of the Vachellia species in the Caribbean. May be you could contribute some of them?

April 2012

Mr. H-P. Vehrs provided pictures from Nigeria, which is the second biggest producer of Gum-Arabic. Trees used for production are Acacia senegal, A. seyal and A. laeta.

March 2012

Dr. J. Mutke from the Nees Institute of the University of Bonn provided pictures of Acacia tortilis ssp. raddiana from Southern Morocco.

February 2012

During my recent visit to Namibia, I found in the Eastern Caprivi in the area of Lianshulu Acacia hebeclada ssp. tristis.

December 2011

From my brother I received a lot of Acacia-pictures from his trip to Ethiopia in October 2011.

November 2011

Australian Acacias are planted all over the world for their beautiful flowers in winter and for their wood. Recently I received pictures from the Caribbean of Acacia auriculiformis and Acacia mangium.

September/ October 2011

It seems that the decision of Melbourne was not well accepted with the African representatives.
In Taxon 12 (Sept 2011), Gideon F. Smith and Estrela Figueiredo announce another move to retipify Acacia with its original type, the African Acacia scorpioides (L.) W. Wright (=A. nilotica Karst.) at the next congress in 5 years in China. Meanwhile they suggest to continue with the use of the genus Acacia s.l. – as if nothing has been changed.

August 2011

The XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne has decided on the Acacia name change options:

http://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/media-releases/the-acacia-debate

The decisions made 5 years ago in Vienna will remain. That means that the Australian Acacias (Wattles) will retain the genus Acacia. The African and American species will have to be renamed.
I will now start to change my website accordingly.

April/May 2011

The discussion on the future name of Acacias is heating up in view of the Botanical Congress in July in Melbourne: http://www.ibc2011.com/ . Will Australia keep the name for its wattles or will the decison of Vienna be reversed?

see also: http://christiankull.net/2011/05/10/the-acacia-name-change-%E2%80%93-botany-and-emotion/

A compromise was recently suggested by Mr. Brummitt from KEW: As far as I understand, it means to keep the name Acacia for all former Genera (Super-genus: Acacia s.l.)and indicate the special genus in brackets. It has to be seen, if this new version finds a majority.

August 2011

The XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne has decided on the Acacia name change options:

http://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/media-releases/the-acacia-debate

The decisiopns made 5 years ago in Vienna will remain. That means that the Australian Acacias (Wattles) will retain the genus Acacia. The African and American species will have to be renamed.

I will now start to change my website accordingly.

April/May 2011

The discussion on the future name of Acacias is heating up in view of the Botanical Congress in July in Melbourne: http://www.ibc2011.com/ . Will Australia keep the name for its wattles or will the decison of Vienna be reversed?

see also: http://christiankull.net/2011/05/10/the-acacia-name-change-%E2%80%93-botany-and-emotion/

A compromise was recently suggested by Mr. Brummitt from KEW: As far as I  understand, it means to keep the name Acacia for all former Genera (Super-genus: Acacia s.l.)and indicate the special genus in brackets. It has to be seen, if this new version finds a majority.

March 2011

A collegue from the discussion Forum of www.baumkunde.de has visited Oman. He allowed me to show his photos of some acacia here.

February 2011

A new section is started to collect more information on diseases on Acacia trees. One of the most common diseases is caused by fungi, especially Ravenelia (Ravenelia natalensis; R. acaciae-senegalae; R. acacicola).

A collection of pictures of Pests and Diseases on Acacia Koa can be found here:
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/nelsons/koa/koa.html

I will also include galls and other diseases/enemies like mistle-toes.

January 2011

in the last newsletter of the Acacia Study Group I showed some pictures featuring “Acacias as host trees of Insects”,

see: http://www.worldwidewattle.com/socgroups/asg/newsletters/111.pdf

December 2010

from Mr. Kirk West I received permission to publish his photo of Acacia haematoxylon. Now I miss only one more picture of the Acacias of South Africa: Acacia erioloba x Acacia haematoxylon. This hybrid is also known as Acacia giraffae.

November 2010

The horticulturist Gerard Cavatore in Bormes-les-Mimosa/Cote D`Azur, France, has specialised in acacias. His catalogue is quite intersting. He also published a book on “Mimosas et Acacias”; Edisud, 2008. Although in French, it may help in understanding how to keep acacia in your garden; see:
http://www.pepinieres-cavatore.fr/Commander.htm

September/October 2010

During the Acacia Symposium in Buenos Aires the following lectures have been given:

- Molecular Phylogenetics of the derived Mimosoeae with emphasis segregate Acacia lineages, by J. Miller, M. van der Bank and D. Seigler together with: Molecular Phylogenetics of the Australian Acacias, by J. Miller

- Analisis molecular del genero Acacia ,con enfasis en el grupe Myrmecofilo, by S.L. Gomez-Acevedo, L. Rico-Arce, A. Delgado-Salinas and L.E.Eguiarte

- Non protein amino acids of Acacia, by M.Soto-Hernandez, G.Kite and L. Rico

- Acacieae Benth.(Leguminosae-Mimosoideae) in the State of Minas Gerais (Brazil): Uses, Conservation Status and seeing further, by V. Terra and F.C.P. Garcia

- Caracterization de las variedades de Acacia caven (Leguminosae- Mimosoideae) mediante el uso de marcadores moleculares y morphologicos, by C.L. Pometti, J.C.Vilardi, A.M. Cialdella and B.O. Saidmann

- El uso de los caracteres morfologicos de plantulas de especies de las tribus Ingeae and Acacieae, su importancia en sistematica & filogenia, by. L. Rico-Arce.

The proceedings have not yet been published.

August 2010

The V International Legume Conference will be held August 8-14, 2010 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

One of the many symposia during that conference will be on Acacia, chaired by L. Rico and J. Miller. I will later report on the proceedings.

July 2010

Recently a TV movie explained the strange death of antelopes, that were confined to an extended area in South Africa. The animals normally browse on Acacia trees for a while and then go on to the next tree.The Acacia feels the threat and increases its tannin production. At the same time a gas (ethylene) is released, that travels up to 40 meters and “warns” other Acacia trees on the browsers. These trees start to íncrease their tannin production even before the browsers arrive. Normally the animals wander against the wind and thereby avoid the plants with the high tannin content in their leaves. But because they were confined to a limited area, there was no way other than to consume these “toxic” Acacia, which killed them in the end.

June 2010

Red Acacia flowers

Recently a forum member of baumkunde.de found a red acacia flower in the internet under the name of Acacia arabica. It turned out to be an error. The photo showed a Mimosa sp., that often feature rose flower heads.

But there are a handful of acacia species, that have red flowers, especially two in Madagascar (A.pervillei; A. sakalava), one in Mexico (A. reniformis) and two to three red in Australia (A. purpureapetala; A leprosa “Scarlet Blaze”; A.tetragonophylla - sometimes)

In Africa several Acacias are found that are normally white or cream-colored, but sometimes show rose flowers: A. laeta; A. mellifera; A.paolii; A.stuhlmannii; see also: http://www.worldwidewattle.com/schools/roses.php

April/May 2010:

Prof. Dr. M. Heil studies since a long time ant-acacias in Mexico. Together with other scientists he found by genetic studies that the continuous provision of nectar is “younger” than the activated provision, i.e. the provision of nectar only if it is necessary:

http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/biowissenschaften_chemie/bericht-31004.html

Some ants only exploit the Acacia, while others defend her:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/x35365w5825j5325/

For some ants, that can not digest certain sugars, the acacia produces an enzyme, that predigests these sugars, i.e. it customizes its nectar for the ant-colony that defends her:

http://scienceonline.org/cgi/content/summary/308/5721/481a

March 2010

Christian found a blooming Acacia dealbata in the Schau- und Sichtungsgarten Hermannshof at Weinheim/Bergstrasse, Germany, which is all year round “outside”.:

http://www.baumkunde.de/forum/viewtopic.php?p=52063#52063

It blooms every year and is pruned heavily. Then it grows back quickly. If temperatures fall below minus 6 degrees Celsius, the whole plant, however, is protected by a light “hut” including a warm air blower.

February 2010

This month Acacia ataxacantha is in bloom in South Africa. It features red flower buds and flame coloured red young fruit. Therefore some people say it has red flowers. Hence the English name Flame thorn.

see: /acacia-world.net/

January 2010

In the ASG newsletter107 from Dec 2009 a new book is announced:

Wattles of Tasmania, by Marion H Simmons OAM.

Published 2009 Marion H Simmons

more and more specimens of the KEW-Herbarium have been scanned and can now be studied on the web: http://apps.kew.org/herbcat/navigator.do

Type in `Acacia` and more than 300 hits appear, many of them with a picture of the herbarium specimen.

November 2009

There are four articles in Nuytsia 18 (2008) from Bruce Maslin et.al. describing 16 new Acacia species, 5 in subgenus Acacia (formerly Phyllodineae) and 11 in subgenus Juliflorae, bringing my worldwide total to 1.387 Acacia species s.l.(including Acaciella).

October 2009

The French Photographer Cedric Pollet has studiesd tree barks for over ten years. His photos are now available also in a German book: Rinde - Die Wunderwelt der Bäume entdecken, Verlag Ulmer 2009,  ISBN 978-3-8001-5911-6.

There are only two pictures in the book which were photographed by others: One of it Acacia cyperophylla by Bruce Maslin. The wonderful book was originally published in French in 2008 by les Editions Eugen Ulmer, Paris.

September 2009

Wattles of the Pilbara: Bruce Maslin and Stephen van Leewen prepared the practical illustrated field guide, covering 32 species of the more than 80 Acacia species found in the Pilbara region.

August 2009

Cold hardiness of Acacia in Europe.

Comments in the 2009 book from KEW publishing “ New Trees; Recent introductions to Cultivation”:
”Acacia dealbata subsp. subalpina - USDA hardiness zone 8-9; ... but in the UK at least its supposed advantage has yet to be put to the test, and Hogan (2008) has found that other high-altitude forms from mainland Australia are hardier.” and Acacia pataczekii from Tasmania: “ ... still grows at KEW near King Williams Temple. It should be possible to grow A. patczekii throughout the maritime and milder parts of our area, given a well drained sunny side!.

July 2009:

Acacia germanica

As a German, I am certainly interested in the old name Acacia germanica. It was used in former times for Prunus spinosa (Schlehe; “weiße Akazie”), a spiny bush. Dried flowers of Prunus spinosa were sold under Flores Acaciae by chemists. A butterfly and his caterpillar feeding on Prunus spinosa are still called today Thecla acaciae (= Nordmannia acaciae), in German: Akazien-Zipfelfalter.

June 2009

The herbarium collection of the Botanical Garden in Berlin, Germany, includes quite a lot of Acacia specimens,

see: http://www.bgbm.org/BGBM/research/colls/herb/default.htm

May 2009

In the greenhouse of the Botanical Garden of Bochum, Germany there are numerous Australian acacias. Some are marked. The one shown here has no sign. Could it be Acacia saligna?

April 2009

Robinia pseudocacia is well known under the name Acacia. I will not see this popular name disappear.
http://www.2020site.org/trees/acacia.html

March 2009

The Acacia-site from Wikipedia has been greatly improved:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia

February 2009

M. Thulin has found another new species in Somalia: Acacia fumosa. It is closely related to A. ochraea, but differs in its ash grey, smooth and non-flaking bark, densely pubescent leaves, and pink flowers.

January 2009

When you search for Acacia in google you get 8.250.000 hits. The world is fond of this word, using it for all kinds of businesses etc. Only on the second page you find a reference to our interest:
http://asgap.org.au/acacia.html

December 2008

The Acacia Study Group of the APS has collected many pictures of Australian acacias over the years, which are now available for members on a CD. Please contact Bill Aitchinson. I have started to post some of them on this site.

November 2008

during this month I travelled in Costa Rica, north of the capital S. Jose. Out of the 13 species of Acacia s.l. to be found in Costa Rica , I came across three - one of which I had already seen in Yucatan, Mexico. None was in bloom. There was only the occasional leftover fruit or a flower bud.

October 2008

People visiting this website send all kind of questions. Recently I was asked which Acacia species exactly is mentioned in the Bible: Mose 2, 25 10-13. Could it be Acacia nilotica?

Whoever wants to comment, please send me an e.-mail.

September 2008

Please also have a look on the website of the Australian Botanical Gardens:

http://www.anbg.gov.au/acacia/

August 2008:

The Tree Atlas of Namibia is now also accessible on the web:

http://www.biodiversity.org.na/treeatlas/taphome.php

It features good overwiews for all Acacia-species in Namibia, many of which are found throughout Southern  Africa.

July 2008

In the Acacia study Group newsletter 101 of the ASP (Association of Australian Societies for Growing Australian Plants) Bill Aitchison discusses the subject “Acacias and Allergies”, see:
http://www.worldwidewattle.com/socgroups/asg/index.php?#published_issues

June 2008

The number of species is still increasing. My personal count of Acacia s.l. (including Vachellia, Aculeiferum, Mariosousa, Acaciella and Phyllodineae) stands at 1370. The latest addition is Acacia uncifolia, which has been elevated from a subspecies of A. retinoides to species level by M.C. O`Leary.

May 2008

The ALUKA-project collects info on African plant species on the web. There are >1600 herbarium samples of acacia shown with an incredible high resolution. Actually the access is still fee of charge. Go to: http://www.aluka.org/

April 2008

on his website, Joe Miller of the University of Iowa, together with D.Seigler, J.Ebinger and L. Scott describes all American acacia according to the new genera. The new genus Mariosousa is thereby documented in detail:
http://ccg.biology.uiowa.edu/jmiller/acaciaID.php

March 2008

The Karroo-complex
Attached please find some thoughts about the status of the differentiation inside the Karroo-group (updated in April)

February 2008

The Dendrological Society of South Africa gives tree numbers to 58 species ( including subspecies and varieties) of Acacia, including some that are endemic to Namibia, in the National List of Indigenous Trees

January 2008

“Acacias” are very common in Europe. Near my home we have an Acacia Street, an Acacia Alleey and an Acacia copse. But in all cases the underlying plants are the Robinias (Robinia pseudoacacia). They have been imported to Europe from America hundreds of years ago for their good timber. But today they sometimes grow like weed along railroads and are then considered intruders.

Comparing Robinias and Acacias, we find some features that are very much alike in both species, especially the spines, the fruit and the rough bark. From afar also the leaves may look alike - although acacias have bipinnate leaves (without a terminal leaflet) and Robinias feature pinnate compound lleaves with a terminal leaflet.

A striking difference is manifest in the flowers. Whereas the visible parts of the flowers in acacias are balls or spikes of (up to 300) stamens, Robinias (black locust) has white (sometimes rose) flowers in drooping racemes showing the petals.

December 2007

The Newsletter Nr 99 of the Acacia Study Group contains a key to Acacia species in Tasmania by Alan M. Gray.

November 2007:

the discussion on the name change of acacia is heating up. Read the article in an South African paper

October 2007:

Did you know, that most of the acacia gum used in the food industry comes from Sudan? and that most acacia gums are traded through Hamburg, Germany?

If you want to learn more about the industrial use of acacia gums, please go to: http://www.foodnavigator.com and enter the key word: acacia gum - and you will find up to date news from the industry.

September 2007:

Newsletter no.98 from the Acacia Study Group of the Association of Societies for Growing Australian plants has been released. To receive an electronic copy please contact Esther Bruggemeier, the Group Leader, under wildaboutwattle at iprimus.com.au or look at worldwidewattle:
http://www.worldwidewattle.com under Societies&Groups /ASG

Rosemary Wise has drawn hundreds of excellent detailed pictures of acacia. They can be searched in the Virtual Field Herbarium:

http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/vfh/image/index.php

Please filter by drawings or look at the more than 1000 photographs

August 2007:

The discussion re the name change in Acacia s.l. continues:

G.Moore from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in New York:

The handling of the proposal to conserve the name Acacia at the 17th Internnational Botanical Congress - an attempt at minority rule in: Bothalia 37,1: 109-118 (2007)

July 2007:

Looking at old slides from our 1975 Kenya-trip I discovered two pictures of Acacia drepanolobium, which I can use in the article on myrmecophilous acacia.

June 2007:

Dr. Lourdes Rico-Arce launches her new book on the American Acacia species (see literature).

May 2007:

I discovered the website of Joe Miller and Dave Seigler

April 2007

My trip to Mexico, where I have seen a lot of myrmecophilous acacia