Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight & Arn.

Aroma; Sickle Bush

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Aroma is an introduced deciduous shrub or small tree in the Bean family (Fabaceae). It is native to Africa and India. It has been introduced in the United States, the Caribbean, Northern Australia, and Southeast Asia. Aroma has been documented as occurring at a single site on Dauphin Island in Mobile County in Alabama. It is a deciduous shrub or small tree reaching heights of 21 feet. The bark is gray-brown in color with long fissures. Young stems are green and pubescent. The stems are armed with alternate lateral shoots (branchlets) that are spine-like in appearance with sharp points. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, and bi-pinnately compound. Each leaf has 9-24 pairs of leaflets. There are pairs of peg-like glands at the base of pinnae pairs. Flowers are produced in pendulous spikes from the leaf axils. The spikes are bi-colored. The upper pink colored flowers are sterile with protruding staminodes and the lower yellow colored flowers are fertile with 1 pistil and 10 yellow stamens. The flowers are fragrant. The fruit is a coiled legume. Aroma has been widely planted as an ornamental and for erosion control. It freely suckers from the roots and produces abundant seed. It is considered an invasive species in many parts of the world. Aroma is thought to have been introduced into the United States in 1998 in the Lower Keys by seed transported from Cuba by Hurricane Georges.—A. Diamond

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Not Native

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