October 2008
People visiting this website send all kind of questions. Recently I was asked which Acacia species exactly is mentioned in the Bible: Mose 2, 25 10-13. Could it be Acacia nilotica?
Whoever wants to comment, please send me an e.-mail.

September 2008
Please also have a look on the website of the Australian Botanical Gardens:
http://www.anbg.gov.au/acacia/

August 2008:
The Tree Atlas of Namibia is now also accessible on the web:
http://www.biodiversity.org.na/treeatlas/taphome.php
It features good overwiews for all Acacia-species in Namibia, many of which are found throughout Southern  Africa.

July 2008
In the Acacia study Group newsletter 101 of the ASP (Association of Australian Societies for Growing Australian Plants) Bill Aitchison discusses the subject “Acacias and Allergies”, see:
http://www.worldwidewattle.com/socgroups/asg/index.php?#published_issues

June 2008
The number of species is still increasing. My personal count of Acacia s.l. (including Vachellia, Aculeiferum, Mariosousa, Acaciella and Phyllodineae) stands at 1370. The latest addition is Acacia uncifolia, which has been elevated from a subspecies of A. retinoides to species level by M.C. O`Leary.

May 2008
The ALUKA-project collects info on African plant species on the web. There are >1600 herbarium samples of acacia shown with an incredible high resolution. Actually the access is still fee of charge. Go to: http://www.aluka.org/

April 2008
on his website, Joe Miller of the University of Iowa, together with D.Seigler, J.Ebinger and L. Scott describes all American acacia according to the new genera. The new genus Mariosousa is thereby documented in detail:
http://ccg.biology.uiowa.edu/jmiller/acaciaID.php

March 2008
The Karroo-complex
Attached please find some thoughts about the status of the differentiation inside the Karroo-group (updated in April)

February 2008
The Dendrological Society of South Africa gives tree numbers to 58 species ( including subspecies and varieties) of Acacia, including some that are endemic to Namibia, in the National List of Indigenous Trees

January 2008
“Acacias” are very common in Europe. Near my home we have an Acacia Street, an Acacia Alleey and an Acacia copse. But in all cases the underlying plants are the Robinias (Robinia pseudoacacia). They have been imported to Europe from America hundreds of years ago for their good timber. But today they sometimes grow like weed along railroads and are then considered intruders.

Comparing Robinias and Acacias, we find some features that are very much alike in both species, especially the spines, the fruit and the rough bark. From afar also the leaves may look alike - although acacias have bipinnate leaves (without a terminal leaflet) and Robinias feature pinnate compound lleaves with a terminal leaflet.
A striking difference is manifest in the flowers. Whereas the visible parts of the flowers in acacias are balls or spikes of (up to 300) stamens, Robinias (black locust) has white (sometimes rose) flowers in drooping racemes showing the petals.

December 2007
The Newsletter Nr 99 of the Acacia Study Group contains a key to Acacia species in Tasmania by Alan M. Gray.

November 2007:
the discussion on the name change of acacia is heating up. Read the article in an South African paper

October 2007:
Did you know, that most of the acacia gum used in the food industry comes from Sudan? and that most acacia gums are traded through Hamburg, Germany?

If you want to learn more about the industrial use of acacia gums, please go to: http://www.foodnavigator.com and enter the key word: acacia gum - and you will find up to date news from the industry.

September 2007: Newsletter no.98 from the Acacia Study Group of the Association of Societies for Growing Australian plants has been released. To receive an electronic copy please contact Esther Bruggemeier, the Group Leader, under wildaboutwattle at iprimus.com.au or look at worldwidewattle:
http://www.worldwidewattle.com under Societies&Groups /ASG

There is a lot of useful info and nice pictures on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia

Rosemary Wise has drawn hundreds of excellent detailed pictures of acacia. They can be searched in the Virtual Field Herbarium:
http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/vfh/image/index.php
Please filter by drawings or look at the more than 1000 photographs

August 2007: The discussion re the name change in Acacia s.l. continues:

G.Moore from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in New York :
The handling of the proposal to conserve the name Acacia at the 17th Internnational Botanical Congress - an attempt at minority rule
in: Bothalia 37,1: 109-118 (2007)

July 2007: Looking at old slides from our 1975 Kenya-trip I discovered two pictures of Acacia drepanolobium, which I can use in the article on myrmecophilous acacia.

June 2007: Dr.Lourdes Rico-Arce launches her new book on the American Acacia species (see literature).

May 2007: I discovered the website of Joe Miller and Dave Seigler

April 2007. My trip to Mexico, where I have seen a lot of myrmecophilous acacia