Editing Mimosoideae (section)

=== Description ===
They are trees, shrubs or lianas, which may be armed or unarmed.<ref name=delin>{{cite web |last1=吴德邻 |first1=Wu Delin |last2=Nielsen |first2=Ivan C. |title=Flora of China, 6. Tribe ACACIEAE |url=http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/mss/volume10/FOC_10_Acacieae.pdf |publisher=Missouri Botanical Garden Press | date = 2009 |access-date=19 November 2015}}</ref> Where they have spines, these are modified stipules. In some, prickles arise from the stem's cortex and epidermis.<ref name=ww>{{cite web |last1=Armstrong |first1=W. P. |title=Botany 115 Vegetative Terminology, Modified Roots, Stems and Leaves |url=http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph30a.htm |website=Waynes Word |access-date=19 November 2015 |archive-date=14 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160114014209/http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph30a.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The leaves are bipinnate or are modified to vertically oriented phyllodes. A few have cladodes rather than leaves.<ref name=eol>{{cite web |title=Acacia, Thorntree |url=http://eol.org/pages/13650/details |website=EOL |access-date=22 November 2015}}</ref> [[Extrafloral nectary|Extrafloral nectaries]] may be present on the petiole and rachis, and the pinnule tips may carry protein-lipid [[Beltian body|Beltian bodies]].<ref name=ww/> The leaflets are usually opposite, and are carried on shortly stalks or are sessile. The heartwood is typically red and hard,<ref name=nic>{{cite book |editor-last1=Nicholson |editor-first1=Paul T. |editor-last2=Shaw |editor-first2=Ian |title=Ancient Egyptian materials and technology |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780521452571 |page=335 |edition=1. publ., repr.}}</ref> and the sap of various species hardens into gum.<ref name=eol/>

The inflorescences are dense pedunculate heads or spikes borne in axillary clusters, or are aggregated in terminal panicles.<ref name=delin/> The tetra- or pentamerous flowers are uniformly bisexual, or male and bisexual. Sepals are connate (i.e. fused) and valvate (i.e. not overlapping). The reduced petals are valvate, or rarely absent. The flowers have numerous exserted (i.e. protruding) stamens (>2× as many as the corolla lobes),<ref name=rico/> and their filaments are sometimes connate at their base (forming a short stemonozone).<!--Anthers glandular or not.--> Male flowers of some [[Neotropical realm|Neotropical]] species have a reduced staminal tube (cf. ''[[Acacia albicorticata|A. albicorticata]]'', ''[[Acacia hindsii|A. hindsii]]'', ''[[Acacia farnesiana|A. farnesiana]]'', and ''[[Senegalia picachensis|S. picachensis]]'').<ref name=rico/> Flowers are usually yellow or cream-coloured, but may be white, red, or purple.<ref name=eol/>

The ovary is sessile or stipitate (i.e. supported by a stipe), with many ovules or ovules arranged in two rows. The ovary is attached by a filiform style to a small, capitate stigma. The legume's endocarp is attached to the exocarp, but is otherwise very variable, and may be dehiscent or indehiscent. Seeds are usually elliptic to oblong and flattened to varying degrees. Seeds have a hard black-brown testa (i.e. seed coat) with a pleurogram, visible as a closed or almost closed O-shaped line. Some phyllodinous species have a colourful [[aril]] or [[elaiosome]] on the seed.<ref name=delin/>