Fever tree

Acacia xanthophloea

Acacia xanthophloea is a tree in the Fabaceae family and is commonly known in English as the Fever Tree (local East African names include Olerai, Kimwea, Murera, and Mwelele). This species of acacia is native to eastern and southern Africa. It can be found in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It has also become a landscape tree in other warm climates, outside of its natural range.
Fever tree in Arusha National Park, Tanzania These fever trees with their yellow bark commonly grow alongside rivers. Early settlers called it fever tree not only for its color, but also for believing it causes malaria. Truthfully, the tree happens to grow in habitat (slow flowing rivers) where malaria may be. Being part of the acacia tree family, it grows very large thorns, which are used by many weavers birds as protection from other species. Acacia xanthophloea,Africa,Arusha,Arusha National Park,Fever tree,Tanzania

Appearance

The trees grow to a height of 15–25 m. The characteristic bark is smooth, powdery and greenish-yellow in colour. It is one of the few trees where photosynthesis takes place in the bark. Straight, white spines grow from the branch nodes in pairs. The leaves are twice compound, with small leaflets (8 x 2 mm). The flowers are produced in scented pale cream spherical inflorescences, clustered at the nodes and towards the ends of the branches.

Fever trees are fast-growing and short-lived. They have a tendency to occur as single-aged stands, and are subject to stand-level diebacks that have been variously attributed to elephants, water tables, and synchronous senescence.

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Status: Unknown
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Taxonomy
KingdomPlantae
DivisionAngiosperms
ClassEudicots
OrderFabales
FamilyFabaceae
GenusAcacia
Species
Photographed in
Tanzania
South Africa