Jerusalem-thorn

Parkinsonia aculeata, the Jerusalem-thorn or palo verde, is a small thorny tree of the Fabaceae family native to the arid lowlands of the southern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and northern South America. It grows three to ten metres tall with a slender, often crooked, smooth green trunk and an open, weeping crown. The compound leaves are remarkable: short, spine-tipped petioles bear long, flattened, drooping rachises up to forty centimetres long, lined with many tiny ovate leaflets that fall in the dry season, leaving the photosynthetic green branches and rachises to carry on. Bright yellow, five-petalled, fragrant flowers with one orange-spotted upper petal appear in loose racemes through much of the warm season. The fruit is a slender, constricted pod containing one to several hard, oblong seeds.