Changes

*''Acacia arabica'' (Lamk) Willd. (1806).

*A shrub or small to medium-sized, spiny and evergreen tree, usually less than 10 m tall, but sometimes attaining 20 m tall; bole short, straight or bent, with diameter up to 60(-80) cm, crown umbrella-shaped; bark dark brown, longitudinally deeply fissured, 1-1.5 cm thick; branches ascending, branchlets smooth, densely grey pubescent when young, at each leaf-base provided with 2 stipular spines 1-5 cm long, straight, sharp-pointed and white; sometimes spines are absent. *Leaves alternate, bipinnately compound with 3-6 pairs of pinnae, rachises 3-10 cm long, pubescent, glandless or with several glands; leaflets (8-)10-15(-20) pairs per pinna, membranous, elliptic or narrowly oblong, 3-6 mm × 1-2 mm, rounded and oblique at base, obtuse at apex, entire, usually glabrous, subsessile. *Flowers very small, 5-merous and arranged in 1-3 cm long peduncled, globose heads; heads 1-2 cm in diameter, 1-6 per leaf axil, with ca. 50 flowers per head, dark yellow and sweet-scented; subtending leaves of upper nodes reduced or not yet developed. *Fruit a usually dehiscent oblong-linear and flattened pod, 7.5-15 cm × 1-2 cm, constricted between the seeds, distinctly stalked, densely tomentellous, becoming black when ripe, 5-12 seeded. *Seeds ovoid-circular, flattened, ca. 5 mm × 4 mm, black. *Germination epigeal, seedling with petiolate circular-ovate cotyledons and very short epicotyl; first leaves alternate, sometimes opposite.

Two beetle species have been recorded as the most destructive insect pests of babul acacia in India, i.e. ''Coelasterna scabrata'' , a root-borer beetle, and ''Psiloptera fastuosa'' , which strips the bark from shoots and branches. Some plant parasites such as ''Dendrophthoe falcata'' (L.f.) Ettingsh. and ''Loranthus'' spp. have been reported on babul acacia. Damping-off in seedling stands, root rot, and heartwood rot caused by fungi have been reported.