Open AccessOver twenty years ago the first specimens of a hybrid between Acacia giraffae Willd. and A. haematoxylon Willd. were collected in the Hay district of the Cape Province. From an examination of all available herbarium specimens the characteristics of A. giraffae, A. haematoxylon, and the hybrid are tabulated. Some of the characters displayed by the hybrid, for example number of pinna pairs, are found to be intermediate between the values recorded for the parent species, while other characters, for example the degree of pubescence and the presence of glands, tend to be inherited from one parent species only. It appears, therefore, that there is a marked tendency for certain characters associated together in a parent to be associated in the hybrid.