Acacia cochliacantha Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd., Fabaceae

Click on an image for links to BIGGER PICTURES

Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  High risk, score: 10 (Go to the risk assessment)

Other Latin names:  Acacia cymbispina Sprague & L. Riley

Common name(s): [more details]

English: boat-spine acacia

Spanish: chirahui, chirajo, guinolo, sinalá

Habit:  shrub/tree

Description:  "Vase-shaped shrubs or small trees, 5-6 (8) m, with many straight branches; twigs with numerous, small lenticels.  Bark dark brown, relatively smooth.  Herbage glabrate; new herbage with sparse, short, white hairs.  Spines stipular, often 1-5 cm, paired, at first red-brown and flexible, becoming whitish and firm, dorso-ventrally flattened, the larger ones boat shaped (unique among the flora of north-western Mexico).  Foliage gradually drought deciduous, leafing out with summer rains; leaves 5-15 (21) cm; petioles with a raised nectary gland; pinnae 7-25 pairs; leaflets 1.5-3.5 mm and numerous.  Flowers yellow-orange, in rounded heads.  Pods 7.5-17 cm x 8-11 mm, dark red-brown, thick and moderately compressed, straight to slightly curved, indehiscent with pulpy mesocarp"  (Felger et al., 2001; p. 159).

Habitat/ecology:  In its native habitat in Mexico:  "Slopes, valleys, plains, arroyos, and disturbed habitats; thornscrub, tropical deciduous forest, margins of Sonoran desertscrub, and occasionally in grassland.  [N]ear sea level - 975 (1700) m (3200 [5575] ft.).  This species quickly colonizes abandoned milpas and other disturbed areas including bufflegrass pastures in tropical deciduous forest, often forming impenetrable spiny thickets"  (Felger et al., 2001; p. 159).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Mexico (GRIN).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	O‘ahu Island		Bishop Museum (U.S.A. Hawaii. Honolulu.) (1950) (voucher ID: BISH 448949) Taxon name on voucher: Acacia cochliacantha Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Mexico Mexico	Mexico (United Mexican States)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)

Additional information:
Additional online information about Acacia cochliacantha is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Acacia cochliacantha as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Acacia cochliacantha may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Bishop Museum (U.S.A. Hawaii. Honolulu.). 1950. Voucher specimen #BISH448949(Korte s.n.).

Felger, Richard Stephen/Johnson, Matthew Brian/Wilson, Michael Francis. 2001. The trees of Sonora, Mexico. Oxford University Press US, 2001. 391 pp. .

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2011. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.