Acacia greggii

Wiggins 1964, Benson and Darrow 1981, Kearney and Peebles 1969, Turner et al. 1995

Common Name: catclaw acacia Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Tree Wetland Status: FACU General: Native shrub or tree reaching to 6 m or more; bearing hard, heavy, sapwood cream to yellow; heartwood, reddish-brown. Leaves: Alternate, deciduous, bipinnately compound; 2.5-7.6 cm long, with 2 or 3 pairs of pinnae, each with 4-6 pairs leaflets; pinnae 1-1.5 mm long. Flowers: Cream colored, fragrant, spikes 5.1 cm long, 13 mm diameter; summer. Fruits: Legume 5.1-12.7 cm long, 13 mm wide, flat, often twisted and narrowed between seeds; persists into winter. Ecology: Found on flats, washes, and slopes below 5,000 ft (1524 m). Notes: Distinguished by the small double-compound leaves less than 7.6 cm long; very stout recurved solitary spines; flat twisted pod constricted between seeds. Note the nomenclature change for the entire genus. Ethnobotany: Disagreeable because of stout spines, tool handles, fuel, good honey plant, quail, ground up into a meal. Used as an astringent, emollient, disinfectant, antiinflammatory. Havasupai used in basket making.  Etymology: Acacia is from Greek akakie taken from ake or akis, -a sharp point, greggii is reference to Josiah Gregg (1806-1850), a frontier trader and author who worked with Dr. George Engelmann. Synonyms: Acacia greggii Editor: SBuckley, 2010

Plant: Shrub or tree to 4 m, armed with curved spines Leaves: leaves alternate, twice compound with 2-4 pinnae Flowers: flowers cream in dense elongate clusters Fruit: a pod with round segments irregularly constricted. Misc: Flats, washes; 100-1400 m.; Apr-Jun References: Shreve, F. and I. Wiggins. 1964. Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert. Standford University Press. Stanford Cal.J.C. Hickman, ed. The Jepson Manual.