Volume 4 > Part 1 > Year 1984 > Page 49 > Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae > Parkinsonia

Parkinsonia aculeata L.wfo-0000170206

Sp. Pl.: 375. 1753; Craib in Fl. Siam. En. 1: 507. 1928; K.Larsen & S.S.Larsen in Fl. C.L.V. 18: 66. 1980.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Shrub or small tree, 3–4 m high; young. shoots glabrous, armed with stiff prickles up to 2–3 cm, sometimes reddish. Leaves bipinnate with a short common petiole. ending with a spine and 2–4 pinnae; raehis broad, flattened arid ridged, “phylloclade like”, with numerous, very small, obovate leaflets, subopposite to alternate, 2–5 by 1 mm. Stipules 2, forming short spines. Flowers in axillary, glabrous racemes up to 20 cm. Bracts minute, caducous. Pedicels filiform, up to 15 mm. Buds ovoid, glabbrous. Receptacle flattened, very short. Sepals ovate-oblong, glabrous, reflexed, 5–7 mm long. Petals golden yellow with hairy claw, 12–14 mm long; the median one with 6 mm long claw and suborbicular lamina, the lateral ones with shorter claw and rhomboidal lamina. Stamens nearly equal, filaments hairy below the middle, widened towards base; anthers elliptic, 1.5 mm long, opening lengthwise. Ovary hairy, subsessile; style glabrous; stigma indistinct; ovules 6–15. Pods narrow, cylindric 5–15 by 0.5–0.7 cm, glabrous, yellowish, with 6 or more seeds. Seeds oblong, 10 by 4 mm.

Thailand : Widely cultivated, particularly in the north.

Distribution : Origin tropical America (type). Widely cultivated all over the tropics.

CommonName : Jerusalem Thorn