Common Name: Jerusalem thorn

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Tree

Wetland Status: FAC

General: Trees with well-developed trunk smooth, green bark on upper branches and brown, rough bark on trunk and main limbs, to 12 m tall. Young twigs have paired nodal, spines with small white hairs, soon becoming glabrous.

Leaves: Leaves obscurely twice-pinnate, with reduced primary rachis, 1-3 flattened pinnae, up to 30 cm long, with 10-40 pairs of ephemeral leaflets 2-8 mm long.

Flowers: On racemes 10-16 cm, relatively few-flowered; showy, 27-35 mm wide, sepals and petals yellow, banner petal at first with basal red-orange spots or flecks, anthers pale orange to somewhat rose colored.

Fruits: Pods few seeded, more or less indehiscent or tardily semidehiscent.

Ecology: Found along arroyos, sandy plains, or other low-lying areas where water accumulates in the low desert from 3,000-4,500 ft (914-1372 m); flowers March-May, occasionally post-monsoon.

Distribution: Most states in southern US, from CA, NV, AZ and UT, east to FL; south to s MEX, and in S. Amer.; Europe; Africa and Australia.

Notes: Distinguished by being a tree with photosynthetic, green bark and showy yellow flowers much like other Parkinsonia, but highly distinct by the very-long leaves (to 30 cm) with flattened, >10 cm long rachis of pinna, alternate leaflets and the brown bark on the trunk and main branches.

Ethnobotany: Many tribes to seeds winnowed, parched, dried, cooked and stored them for food.

Etymology: Parkinsonia is named after John Parkinson (1567-1650), while aculeata means prickly.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015