Armed with long, slender, straight white spines, giving it the name
“white-thorn,” this pretty flowering shrub is abundant over large areas
of dry slopes and mesas from Texas to Arizona and Mexico at 2,300 to
5,000 feet. It is often used as a decorative in landscape plantings
around buildings. Blossoms are fragrant and sometimes continue from May
to August; the shrub occasionally blooming again in November. Cattle and
horses eat the bean-like fruits.
_Acacia constricta_ Pea Family
[Illustration: MESCAT-ACACIA]