List of Acacia species

Several cladistic analyses have shown that the genus Acacia is not monophyletic. While the subg. Acacia and subg. Phyllodinae are monophyletic, subg. Aculeiferum is not. This subgenus consists of three clades. Therefore, the following list of Acacia species cannot be maintained as a single entity, and must either be split up, or broadened to include species previously not in the genus. This genus has been provisionally divided into 5 genera, Acacia, Vachellia, Senegalia, Acaciella and Mariosousa. The proposed type species of Acacia is Acacia penninervis.^[1]

Which of these segregate genera is to retain the name Acacia has been controversial. The genus was previously typified with the African species Acacia scorpioides (L.) W.F.Wright, a synonym of Acacia nilotica (L.) Delile. Under the original typification, the name Acacia would stay with the group of species currently recognized as the genus Vachellia. Orchard and Maslin^[2] proposed a retypification of the genus Acacia with the species Acacia penninervis Sieber ex DC., an Australian species that is a member of the largest clade within Acacia, a primarily Australian group formerly recognized as Acacia subgenus Phyllodinae, on the basis that this results in the fewest nomenclatural changes. Although this proposal met with strong disagreement by some authors,^[3] it was accepted on 16 July 2005 by the XVII International Botanical Congress in Vienna, Austria.^[4] Consequently, the name Acacia is conserved for 948 Australian species, 7 in the Pacific Islands, 1 or 2 in Madagascar and 10 in tropical Asia. Those outside Australia are split between the genera Acaciella, Mariosousa, Senegalia, and Vachellia. This decision was upheld at the 2011 Congress.^[5]

In its new circumscription, the genus Acacia (now limited to the Australian species) has seven subgenera—Alatae (an artificial section), Botrycephalae, Juliflorae, Lycopodiifoliae, Plurinerves, Phyllodinae, and Pulchellae (see below). The other species, distributed in the Indian Ocean, tropical Asia and tropical America are now classified under

• Vachellia (former subgenus Acacia): 163 species (pantropical)
• Senegalia (former subgenus Aculeiferum): 203 species (pantropical)
• Acaciella (former subgenus Aculeiferum section Filicinae): 15 species (Americas)
• Mariosousa: 13 species related to (and including) Acacia coulteri (Americas)

Two Australian acacias were re-classified under Vachellia, and another two under Senegalia.

Species List

Wikispecies has information related to: Acacia

This is a list of species that belong to Acacia sensu stricto.^[6] For species that have been transferred to other genera, see Acaciella, Mariosousa, Senegalia, and Vachellia.

Subgenus Alatae

Subgenus Botrycephalae

Subgenus Juliflorae

Subgenus Lycopodiifoliae

Subgenus Phyllodineae

Subgenus Plurinerves

Subgenus Pulchellae

Incertae Sedis

• Acacia simplex
• Acacia test

Hybrids

References

• Global Biodiversity Information Facility
• New proposals for Acacia
• A synopsis of the classification and phylogeny of Acacia
• Brummitt, R.K. (2004). Report of the Committee for Spermatophyta: 55. Proposal 1584 on Acacia Taxon, Volume 53, Number 3, 1 August 2004, pp. 826–829
• List of Acacia Species in the U.S.
• Seigler et al., Mariosousa, a New Segregate Genus from Acacia s.l. (Fabaceae, Mimosoideae) from Central and North America, Novon: A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature: Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 413–420