Mimosa malacophylla A.Gray
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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 - Suffrutescent, prickly, slightly pubescent to glabrate vine-like shrub. Stems 1-5 m, forming tangled masses on the ground or sprawling over shrubs and lower reaches of trees. Leaves large; pinnae 3-5 pairs; leaflets 4-6 pairs, elliptic, .5-1 cm, mucronate, the distal largest, often shiny above. Prickles abundant, on leafstalk and secondary rachises as well as stems, small, mostly recurved. Flowers in fascicled, globose to ovoid, whitish to ochroleucous, short-pedunculate heads, 1-2 cm diam in axillary or terminal racemes or less frequently in leaf axils. Legume oblong, straight or curved, 5-8 cm long, 1-1.2 cm wide, apiculate-beaked; margin sinuous; valves glabrous, constricted between the seeds into 4-9 joints that ultimately separate.
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Discussion
Most U.S. material of Mimosa malacophylla is glabrate or lightly pubescent, w ereas most Mexican specimens are distinctly velutinous.
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Distribution
S Texas and Rio Grande Valley, nw to Kinney Co. Roadside thickets, washes, woodland along lower Rio Grande; limestone to sandy, silt soils. June-July (Oct?). N Mexico.
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