Wednesday's Wildflower: Sweet Acacia


Vachellia farnesiana, formerly Acacia farnesiana

Submitted by John Holyland, Mangrove Chapter

Photo by John Holyland, Lemon Bay County Park, Englewood, Florida
Sweet Acacia, (Pronunciation: uh-KAY-shuh far-nee-zee-AY-nuh), is a large shrub or small tree in the legume family. It is native to the Americas, including the Southern United States, Mexico, and the tropics. Sweet Acacia is fast growing and drought tolerant, making it good for landscapes, but it can suffer from root rot if too wet. As it is very thorny, with thorns on its trunks and branches, it should be placed away from walkways. 

The oval yellow flowers, about 1-2 cm. in diameter, bloom in the winter. They are very fragrant and have a long history of being using to make perfume and scented ointments. The fruits are cylindrical green pods that will will turn purple as they age. 

 The thorny branches make good cover for birds and other wildlife, and bees love to forage in flowers. 

Legend has it that Jesus’ Crown of Thorns came from a tree of the Acacia family.
 
Photo by Shirley Denton, FNPS

______________________________________________________________________________

Editor's note: When I originally sent the notice of this blog to the Wednesday Wildflower contributors, I had Acacia farnesiana as the first mentioned scientific name. Roger Hammer corrected me, so I asked him for the story of the name change. Here is his reply:

There was a taxonomic revision in 2005 that placed members of the genus Acacia into an earlier genus, Vachellia. The genus Vachellia was named to commemorate Eleanor Vachell (1879–1948), a Welsh botanist who is perhaps best known for writing the Flora of Glamorgan, one of the 13 original counties of Wales. She was considered to have an unrivaled knowledge of native plants in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Here’s the lovely lady now (ca. 1930s):

Roger added: Vachellia farnesiana is cultivated in France as a source of essential oils to produce violet perfume. The name farnesiana relates to the Villa Farnese in the town of Caprarola in northern Italy. Most people think violet perfume comes from violets in the genus Viola, but violet flowers contain chemicals that can briefly turn off the ability of the human nose to detect the scent consecutively, which is not a very good trait for a perfume.

 Links: FNPS: Native Plants for Your Area 
USF Plant Atlas: Vachellia farnesiana

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Florida Native Azaleas

Image
Piedmont Azalea, Rhododendron canescens. Photo by Lilly Anderson-Messec By Lilly Anderson-Messec While growing up in North Florida, I began to recognize the arrival of spring by the boisterous show of white, pink, and fuchsia blooms of azalea shrubs. The house I grew up in had large, mature azalea hedges with a variety of different colors and forms. Every spring, my mom would bring in vases full of them and my dad loved to point out the showy shrubs as we drove through town. I suppose I assumed these plants were native, but most likely I never gave it a thought. I didn’t differentiate a native plant from a non-native one because I didn’t yet know the importance of native plants as the basis of our functioning ecosystems. I was so surprised when I learned the azaleas I was so familiar with (Rhododendron indicum) are actually transplants from Asia! They are favored by the horticultural industry for their fast, vigorous, and dense growth of evergreen leaves and large, showy blooms. Curio...
Read more

Wednesday's Wildflower:Spanish Needle

Image
Spanish Needle, Bidens Alba Submitted by Donna Bollenbach, Suncoast Chapter Biden's alba , all photos by Donna Bollenbach Nothing attracts more butterflies and bees than a simple white flower called Bidens alba . Also called Romerillo, Beggar’s Tick, Spanish Needle or Monkey’s Lice, this Florida native wildflower is the third most reliable source of nectar for pollinators in our state. There would be many starving bees and butterflies if not for the Bidens family of flowers. More so, Bidens alba and its sister plant, Bidens pilosa , are both edible and have medicinal value. Yet, many gardeners have a love/hate relationship the plant, and some even consider it a pesky weed. Why?
Read more

Paradise Tree: Beautiful and Useful

Image
"The native Paradise tree is more useful than Google, and easy to grow." And how could any blogger resist leading off with this intriguing quote from the Key West Garden Club? I am a Master Gardener and a Master Naturalist, but I only know so much; so I always check out  statistics from experts before posting information about plants. I have a beautiful Paradise tree in my yard, it came from the raffle table at my chapter's program night about six years ago.   Paradise tree                Simarouba glauca For the first six years the little tree had a perfect, closed, cone shape; but just this summer I was astounded one morning to walk out and notice that my tree had changed. The canopy had begun to open up, there were open spaces between the layers of branches. It seemed to happen overnight. Proving again that a garden is constantly in motion, which is one of the fascinating things about o...
Read more