Common Name: sweet acacia

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Tree

Wetland Status: FACU

General: Habit: Shrub, small tree < 8 m; stipular spines 7--30(50) mm, straight, white in age. Stem: twig +- ridged, +- hairy.

Leaves: Leaf: clustered on short-shoot or not, deciduous, < 5 cm; petiole 3--16 mm, +- hairy, gland present; 1- leaflets 2--6 pairs, 6--33 mm; 2- leaflets 8--19 pairs, 1.6--6.3 mm, 0.5--1.7 mm wide, oblong.

Flowers: Inflorescence: head, generally 1--3 per axil, also clustered with leaves on short-shoots, stalked, < leaf. Flower: bright yellow to dull orange.

Fruits: Fruit: indehiscent, 9--18 mm wide, +- straight, cylindric, leathery, dark brown, glabrous. Seed: +- embedded in a sweet pulp.

Ecology: Found in desert canyons from 2,500-4,000 ft; flowers April-November.

Distribution: FL to s CA; south to Argentina. Cultivated elsewhere; can become naturalized in tropical to subtropical habitats.

Notes: Introduced in tropics, subtropics worldwide, often a troublesome, invasive weed. Cultivated in southern Europe for flower oils used in perfumes. In Arizona it is native from the Tucson area south to the border, rare, growing as a small tree to 6 m tall. Notable for its incredibly sweet scent in flower. Similar to A. constricta, but that species has smaller leaflets, 1-3 mm long and narrower seed pods with constrictions between the seeds.

Editor: AHazelton 2016, draft not fully edited