Parkinsonia

Plant Characteristics

Origin:	✈	?

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	?"?" is not in the list (sun, part-sun, shade, unknown) of allowed values for the "Exposure" property.
Water:	◍	?"?" is not in the list (wet, moist, moderate, dry, less when dormant) of allowed values for the "Water" property.

Scientific Names

Read about Parkinsonia in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Parkinsonia (John Parkinson, 1567-1629, London apothecary, author of the delightful "Paradisus Terrestris" and "Theatrum Botanicum"). Legumi-nosae. Tropical trees or shrubs, with a thin smooth bark and armed with simple or three-forked spines. Leaves alternate or fascicled, bipinnate, with 1-4 pairs of pinnae; the common petiole snort, often obsolete or spinescent; stipules minute or none: fls. yellow or whitish, on slender pedicels in short, loose axillary or terminal racemes; calyx 5-parted, produced at base and jointed upon the pedicel; petals 5, clawed, the upper one within and broader than the rest, somewhat cordatej the claw pubescent and nectariferous on the inner side; stamens 10, free, the upper one gibbous outside; ovary several-ovuled, shortly stipitate: pod compressed, leathery, 2-valved, linear to linear-oblong, more or less twisted, tapering at both ends; seeds compressed, albuminous, with a crusty brown testa.— Five species. The dominant type, both in the wild and in cult., is P. aculeata, the Jerusalem thorn, which is probably a native of Amer., but is naturalized or cult, in all tropical countries. One species is S. African, one is S. American, and the remainder belong to the region between Texas and S. Calif. P. aculeata is a thorny evergreen tree with feathery drooping branches and handsome yellow fls.; it is admirable for hedges, thrives in the driest places and can endure some cold. It has been cult, in European conservatories, being usually raised from imported seeds, but it is of difficult cult. P. Torreyana, though generally destitute of lvs., is known in N. Mex. as "palo verde," from the bright green color of the branches. It stands drought even better than P. aculeata. These plants belong to the same tribe with such fine northern trees as Gleditsia and Gymnocladus and such southern kinds as Caesal- pinia, Poinciana, and Colvillea. They are little known horticulturally. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

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Propagation

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Pests and diseases

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Gallery

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Parkinsonia. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Parkinsonia QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)