Vachellia nilotica

Vachellia nilotica is a deciduous armed tree with a spreading crown.

The bark of Vachellia nilotica is grey-black or dark brown in mature trees. 
The bark is deeply grooved, with longitudinal fissures. 
The young branches are smooth, grey to brown in colour. 
The young branchlets are covered with short hairs.
The thorns of Vachellia nilotica are stipular and straight. 
They are white in colour and around 2 cm long.

The leaves of Vachellia nilotica are compound, with alternate arrangement. 
The leaf size is about 5 cm long.
The leaf type is pinnate with 5 to 20 pairs of leaflets that are bright green in colour. 
The leaves are elliptic and glabrous. 
The base of the leaf base is oblique and obtuse, the margin is entire and the leaf apex is rotund. The petiole is up to 1 cm long, with a gland near the pinnae. 

The flower-heads of Vachellia nilotica are globose and about 1 cm wide. 
They are bright golden-yellow in colour. 
The flowers are solitary but sometimes grow by 2 or 3 in an axillary cluster. 
One flower-head comprises of around 50 tiny flowers. 
One single flower is about 1 mm in size. 
There are 60-70 stamens in one flower.

The fruit of Vachellia nilotica is a seedpod attached by a peduncle. 
One pod is approximately 18 cm long and 1.5 cm wide. 
The pod is glaucous, white in colour, monoliform (resembling a string of beads) and constricted with a horned apex.

The seeds of Vachellia nilotica are flat shaped and black in colour. 
They are about 12 seeds in a seedpod.