Vachellia karroo fruit pods

Fruit pods of Vachellia karroo grow in clusters of five to twenty at branch ends. They are slender, thinly woody, narrowly oblong and flattish, especially before the seeds have formed inside.

Starting off pale green and usually hairless as those in the photo, the pods become rusty brown to dark brown as they mature. Pod shape varies from slightly curved to sickle-shaped and may even be laterally curved as in the photo. Constrictions between the seeds are slight to marked. Pod dimensions are 7 cm to 15 cm by 7 mm to 9 mm.

Some browned floral remains are visible at the base of some of the young pods in picture. The ripe pods split on the tree and release their seeds. There are eight to ten seeds per pod. They are ovoid and flattened in shape, olive green to rusty brown in colour and 7 mm by 5 mm in size.

The tree is variable across its wide distribution, growing in all South African provinces, but not in the Cape Peninsula. Several growth forms may be recognised, associated with parts of the distribution area of the species. Several features of the tree show variation in habitat that may complicate identification, while enriching the experience of encountering V. karroo, one of South Africas most widely spread and well-known trees, in the veld (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Pooley, 1993).