Aroma
Vachellia farnesiana · Sweet acacia
- Names in the book
- Aroma, Sp.; Cassie Flower, Eng.
- Colours
- floweryellow
- Native range
- Tropical Americas
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Grows everywhere, but forms dense thickets in the provinces of La Laguna and Batangas. Blooms in January.
- Family
- Fabaceae, filed in the book under Leguminosæ
- Printed as
- Acacia Farnesiana, Willd. (A. Indica, Desv.; Mimosa Farnesiana, L. and Blanco.)
- Sources
- Page 108 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Vachellia farnesiana, also known as Acacia farnesiana, and previously Mimosa farnesiana, commonly known as sweet acacia, huisache, casha tree, or needle bush, is a species of shrub or small tree in the legume family, Fabaceae. Its flowers are used in the perfume industry.
Excerpt from “Vachellia farnesiana” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 92 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 7 provinces: Laguna (8), Metropolitan Manila (3), Rizal (3), Bataan (2), La Union (2), Bulacan (1), Mountain Province (1).
Counts from GBIF occurrence records, October 2026. They include planted trees and garden plants, and a province with no records may only lack collectors.
What the 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
Uses
The trunk bark is astringent and in decoction is of use in the treatment of prolapsed rectum and as an injection for leucorrhœa. A poultice of the tender leaves is applied to ulcers and sores previously washed with the decoction.
The tree exudes an abundant gum very similar to gum arabic which latter is the product of another species of acacia (A. Arabica, Willd.). The Manila pharmacist, D. Anacleto del Rosario, sent to the Paris Exposition of 1899 a specimen of this gum obtained on the plantation of D. P. P. Roxas, in Batangas. This specimen differed in no respect from gum arabic and it will surely sooner or later take the place of the latter in the Philippines, both for pharmaceutical and industrial purposes. It would be superfluous to describe here the properties of gum arabic.
Botanical description
A small tree 9–12° high, very well known, trunk bristling with long thorns. Leaves twice abruptly pinnate. One or more pairs of leaflets, very small, linear. Common petiole with two thorns united at its base and a small glandule on the upper part. Flowers yellow, aromatic, axillary, joined in a globose head ½–¾′ in diameter, consisting of more than 50 minute flowerets. In each axil are 2 peduncles. In some heads all the flowerets are staminate, in others hermaphrodite. The hermaphrodite flowers have a calyx with 5 small teeth. Corolla, 5 petals. Stamens 40 or more. Pistil same length as the stamens. Staminate flowers: calyx, corolla, stamens and anthers as in the hermaphrodite flowers. Pistil none. Pod round, curved, with 8 or more elliptical, compressed seeds.
Recent research
The most cited papers since 2022 that name this plant in the title, pulled from Europe PMC in October 2026. Titles are the authors' own and the findings have not been reviewed here.
- Vachellia farnesiana Pods or a Polyphenolic Extract Derived from Them Exert Immunomodulatory, Metabolic, Renoprotective, and Prebiotic Effects in Mice Fed a High-Fat Diet
- Non-edible plant seeds of Acacia farnesiana as a new and effective source for biofuel production
- In vitro assessment of dietary mealworm (Tenebrio molitor L.) combined with a natural source of tannins (Acacia farnesiana L.) for sheep feeding