Acacia (wattle)

Trees and shrubs of the pea family; in the narrow sense the genus is mainly Australian, and botanists now place most African and Asian ‘acacias’ in Vachellia and Senegalia. The tiny flowers, in balls or spikes, are rich in pollen. Plantation species such as Acacia mangium carry extrafloral nectaries on their leaves, from which bees gather a sugary secretion.