Fabaceae » Acacia leucophloea



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commonly known as: brewers acacia, distillers acacia, panicled acacia, white-bark acacia • Bengali: সফেদ  বাবলা safed babala • Hindi: arinj, रेवंजा reonja, safed babul, safed kikkar • Kannada: bellada, bili-jali, nayibela • Malayalam: velvelam • Marathi: हिंवर himvar • Oriya: goira • Sanskrit: arimedah, shwet barhura • Tamil: sarai, வெள்வேலம் velvelam • Telugu: తెల్ల తుమ్మ tella tumma

at Katraj Ghat, Pune, Maharashtra

Good identification! I am always confused with Acacias.

Hi!
What is the difference between this one and Earpod Tree (Enterolobium contortisiliquum)?
are these pics correctly labelled?
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=9601755%40N05&q=Acacia&m=text
Thanks!
Shaista

Me too !!! with Acacias, Ipomoeas, Ixoras ... considering so many species found in India with so few of them popularized in books and internet.

Shaista,

A. leucophloea is small tree, more like a shrub, often looking like having a stunted growth. The main stem is usually crooked, especially of those growing in the wild in worse conditions.

... conspicuous flowering in terminal (even axial) panicles ... sometimes therefore called as panicled acacia.

... flowering becomes even more conspicuous during monsoon.

... bark is yellowish white, peeling longitudinally.
... old trees' (these live as much as 100 years) bark darkens to gray, does not peel as much as in young age.

From WWW, Enterolobium contortisiliquum certainly looks like a very large tree compared to A. leucophloea.  

--Last edited by dinesh valke on 2007-10-23 16:09:04 --

Shaista,

The pics at http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=9601755%40N05&q=Acacia&m=text
do look like that of A. leucophloea ... ask a local person whether it is called by the name  रेवंजा .

Thsnks DInesh...for the detailed explanation
As far as asking a local person here, this tree is in front of our hostel...and other than that, in the wilderness of JNU! I dont know who i can ask about this here!
And if say that A. leucophloea is small tree, more like a shrub....do u call this
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaista/1596018294/
a small tree? (not a shrub i m sure:-) )
I havent noticed the bark as yet...will do that when i reach back hostel today...
i have one more pic of this tree...(may be it is a different one...but it had similar flowers)
plz have a look at this:-
(its bark is visible too)
http://shaistaahmad.multiply.com/photos/photo/7/150
(i dont want more "flowers of himachal" to vanish :-) )
Thanks!

The plant at http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaista/1596018294/ certainly has a form of tree; nothing stops us calling it a tree.
Adding "small" will rest any arguments!!

Small tree (or a large shrub): I took some time to digest the concept. Especially, when one of my photo of pomegranate "tree" was requested to be removed from a Flickr group. At first, I felt strongly discouraged about this "disqualification". But on finding what means shrub and tree, I agreed with myself that pomegranate plant cannot be a tree!

I liked reading about shrub and tree at Wikipedia.

At http://shaistaahmad.multiply.com/photos/photo/7/150 the bark does seem to fit the descrïption put earlier.

On the lighter side, I have also been thinking about the difference between a shrub and a tree. As a layperson, if I were asked to lay down a criterion for calling a plant a shrub or a tree, I would say, if you can climb it, it is a tree!  
You can hardly thinking of climbing a pomegranate "tree"! And I found that this criterion agreed with most trees I have come across.

Thanks for the descrïption of a shrub and a tree Dinesh.
And tabish, I think i can climb the tree in http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaista/1596018294/ ...so ur criterion does not fit in here...
I also remember u said "bachpan mein jo shrub hota hai ..wo bada hoke tree ban jaata hai:-D "...how true is that one;-)
Thanks both of you!

The plant in your picture IS a small tree, so my criterion fits! :-)
I made that statement regarding a particular plant, meaning that just because a plant looks like a shrub at one point, doesn't necessarily mean that it remain a shrub. There are many trees, which are grown as shrubs. Kaamini is a good example.  Another one is Fiddlewood, which is grown in pots, but left free, it can become a full tree.