Vachellia jacquemontii - Shrub Babool

Shrub Babool is an erect shrub, 1.2-2.5 m tall, twigs zigzag, bark greyish brown, young shoots slightly finely velvet-hairy. Spines are stipular, straight, white, fused at the base, 1.5-5 cm long. Leaves are double-compound with rachis 0.8-5 cm long, hairless, usually with a gland between the upper pair of pinnae. Side-stalks are 1-4 pairs, 5-15 cm long, leaflets 5-10 pairs, stalkless, about 2.5-4 mm long, about 1-1.5 mm broad, oblong, blunt, hairless. Flowers are borne in stalked heads in leaf-axils, in fascicles of 2-8, rarely shortly racemose or umbellate. Flowers are yellow, fragrant, carried on flower-cluster-stalk about 1.2-2.5 cm long, bracts 2-3, about the middle of the flower-cluster-stalk. Sepal-cup is about 1 mm long, bell-shaped, flower 2.5 mm long. Pods are 5-7.5 cm long, about 0.8-1.7 cm broad, hairless, netveined, 5-6 seeded, stipe about 3-5 mm long. The bark is used for tanning leather and the leaves are stored as fodder. Shrub Babool is a desert plant, found from W. Pakistan to Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan. Flowering: February-May.