Friday, July 26, 2013

A new-to-me native

Meet velvet bundleflower (Desmanthus velutinusprairie acacia (Acacia angustissima var. hirta)! The species is related to catclaw sensitive briar, partridge pea, milkvetch and MANY other plants in the pea family. Yesterday morning, I just happened to be walking along the street, tossing Mexican hat seeds across the Meadow, when I saw this low, shrubby plant. Upon closer examination, I realized I'd never this species on our property. COOL! At first, I thought it was prairie wattle (Acacia angustissima var. texensis). But Joe Marcus at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (I contribute plant images to their database) said no, it's prairie acacia. "Acacia angustissima var. texensis is restricted to south and west Texas and Mexico," he told me. I sure was close, though! :-)  

UPDATE MAY 3, 2018  I uploaded an observation on this plant to iNaturalist, and a user corrected the ID. I agree with her. 






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does this have thorns on it?

Sheryl Smith-Rodgers said...

I don't think so, but I want to look and make sure. I'd wondered that, too.

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