Acacia berlandieri Benth.
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Authority
Isley, Duane. 1973. Leguminosae of the United States: I. Subfamily. Mimosoideae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 25 (1): 1-152.
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Family
Mimosaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Usually armed shrub or small tree to 5 m, commonly clumped from suckers, arching or broad crowned. Branchlets with internodal, curved prickles when young, puberulent. Leaves bipinnate; rachis puberulent, often with curved prickles; gland distal on petiole, depressed, elliptic; pinnae (4-)6-11 pairs; leaflets (12-) 15-35 pairs, short-oblong, slightly asymmetric, 3-4 mm, ciliate or glabrous, with evident secondary venation. Flowers in cream-yellow, becoming orange in age, heads, 1-1.4 cm diam, 1-3 from leaf axils, or congested towards branch tips. Legume oblong, compressed, straight or sinuate, 5-20 cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide; valves greenish and velvety-puberulent when immature, becoming brown-black, thinly coriaceous to woody, tardily separating.
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Discussion
Senegalia berlandieri (Benth.) Britt. & Rose S. emoryana (Benth.) Britt. & Rose CN 2n=26 (Turner & Fearing, 1960a). Acacia berlandieri is abundant in southern Texas where it is conspicuous over thousands of acres. Riedel (1957) reports it in cultivation in Arizona. Acacia emoryana Benth. represents a form with few pinnae and leaflets and subspicate inflorescences. It was reduced to synonymy under A. berlandieri by Turner (1959) and Isely (1969), the latter with qualifications. Marshall Johnston (in litt.) reports the probability A. emoryana is the product of hybridization of A. berlandieri and A. greggii.
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Distribution
S Texas, w to Brewster Co. Brush country on rocky limestone hills, ridges, slopes, to caliche flats; among or codominant with mesquite-oak or cactus-mesquite. Abundant. Occasional in cultivation. March-May. Guajillo. Adjoining Mexico.
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