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Parkinsonia
Parkinsonia , also Cercidium , is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about 12 species that are native to semidesert regions of Africa and the Americas. The name of the genus honors English apothecary and botanist John Parkinson (1567–1650).
They are large shrubs or small trees growing to 5–12 m (16–39 ft) tall, dry season deciduous, with sparse, open, thorny crowns and green bark. The leaves are pinnate, usually bipinnate, with numerous small leaflets; they are only borne for a relatively short time after rains, with much of the photosynthesis carried out by the green twigs and branches. The flowers are symmetrical or nearly so, with five yellow or white petals. The fruit is a pod containing several seeds.
A major pollinator for Parkinsonia species in the southwestern United States and western Mexico is Centris pallida, a solitary bee known as the digger or pallid bee. C. pallida obtains nectar and pollen from this plant to fill a brood pot so that their larvae will have food when they hatch. The nectar and pollen give its bee bread a strong orange color.
Jerusalem thorn · Greenhair Tree · Blue paloverde · Yellow paloverde · Sonoran Palo Verde · Parkinsonia raimondoi · Texas paloverde
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Parkinsonia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
