Handle With Caution

The thorny twigs of Bluewood Condailia, Lotebush and Granjeno can be somewhat camouflaged by the leaves growing from them. This is not at all true of Huisache (Acacia farnesiana) thorns. These thorns may not always be easy to see through the foliage, but I'm not sure how they could be any more obvious:

Plants in the Genus Acacia are shrubs or small trees. Almost all of them have thorns, some more obvious than others. Huisace generally grows to be a small to medium sized tree. It is very common from the southern edge of the Texas Hill Country south through the South Texas Brush Country. Huisache blooms late in winter becoming covered with fragrant bright yellow "puffball" flowers.

There are a couple things to keep in mind particularly if Huisache are used as a landscape tree. Huisache thorns have been known to puncture both the soles of shoes and car and truck tires. Also, when trimmed or pruned, the new growth that follows will have larger and more plentiful thorns.

This set of photographs was taken along the Yanaguana Nature Trail at Mission San Juan in the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park on Monday, October, 28, 2013.

This is the third in a multi-post series. Part 1 is here and part 2 here.