Acacia macracantha Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Mimosaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Shrub or small tree to 10 m tall, with many spreading branches from trunk; bark grayish brown, smooth to fissured; branches cylindrical, densely pubescent, becoming glabrous with age, lenticellate, zigzag-shaped. Leaves 2.5-16 cm long; pinnae 8-18 pairs; rachis furrowed, densely pubescent, with 1 basal gland and 1-3 distal glands; leaflets 18-32 pairs per pinna, 3-4 mm long, oblong, chartaceous, the apex obtuse, the base rounded, unequal, the margins ciliate; stipules straight, spinose, 1-4.5 cm long, persistent. Heads globose, 5-8 mm diam., congested in leaf axils; peduncles 1-2 cm long. Calyx bell-shaped, ca. 1 mm long, greenish; corolla bell-shaped, ca. 1.5 mm long, bright orangeyellow; stamens long-exserted, orange-yellow. Legume 9-11 x 0.9-1 cm, flattened, straight or slightly curved, puberulent, the margins constricted between the seeds, indehiscent. Seeds ca. 6 mm long, widely elliptic, slightly compressed.
Distribution and Ecology - A common tree of dry coastal scrub. Bordeaux (A2617), Fish Bay (A3915), Hansen Bay (A1805). Also on Jost van Dyke, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Tortola; the Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, and Venezuela.
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Discussion
Common name: stink-casha.