Vachellia karroo blooms

This vigorous January blooming of Vachellia karroo was seen in the Magaliesberg. Small clusters of yellow flowers, fluffy and globose, are spaced at the nodes near the stem tip. The flowers grow on stalks of about 2 cm long with a ring of bracts on the stalk; the calyx is warty. The yellow balls of flower become about 13 mm in diameter.

Some tiny greenish yellow buds are seen among the mature blooms, still to develop for the bees visiting in a few days (Pooley, 1993; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997).