# twisted acacia slabs



## vegas urban lumber (Aug 18, 2016)

kind of like a mesquite in the bark, but much smaller spines and a different growth habit than our landscape mesquites here in vegas. heart wood is quite red, but not tight growth rings. was wind blown over in the ethal m. chocolates, cacus garden. id plaque said twisted acacia, though i didn't write down the latin name

Reactions: Like 3 | EyeCandy! 4 | Way Cool 3


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Aug 18, 2016)

i'll try and get some better pictures once i get one through the planer


----------



## barry richardson (Aug 19, 2016)

From your pictures and description, I'm betting it's sweet Acacia, AKA *huisache, * _*Vachellia farnesiana. *_


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Aug 19, 2016)

barry richardson said:


> From your pictures and description, I'm betting it's sweet Acacia, AKA *huisache, * _*Vachellia farnesiana. *_



nope that's not it at least from the pictures i see on the internet of that one. the one i cut up has like small tufts at the base of each spine, spines are quite small inly 1/2" or less long. and appears to grow with a more central truck, rather than shrub like

i'll have to go down there and get the latin name off the plaque so i can check it on the internet

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## barry richardson (Aug 19, 2016)

let us know when you do, till then I'm sticking with Sweet Acacia...


----------



## David Hill (Aug 19, 2016)

It'll be pretty close to Huisache--that's what I thought at first look. Prolly a kissin' cousin.
Nice wood, but if it's like Huiscache , it tends to move, crack if you let it set long.


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Aug 20, 2016)

well their placard says acacia schaffneri, but i think they are way off. here's a picture of the bark, extremely small leaf groups, much smaller thorns with tufts and seed pod. any help identifying would be appreciated. all of the sweet acacia i see pictured on the internet has much larger thorns. on these trees the thorn is barely as big as the little tuft at the base of each branch


----------



## David Hill (Aug 21, 2016)

Defintely not Huisache. Only thing 'round here that resembles is Palo Verde, but thats hardly a tree. _Acacia _is a big family of trees.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Aug 21, 2016)

any other texans with an opinion on this acacia id? i thought it might be an easy one but i might have to post a wood id thread and hope someone can help me sort it out


----------



## barry richardson (Aug 22, 2016)

Trev, looks like I was wrong, the beans and leaves are definitely not sweet acacia. At least not like the ones in my yard. I wouldn't get too hung up on the thorns (pun intended) Lots of trees like mesquite and others are select bred to be thornless, or minimum thorns. and they also vary a lot naturally, honey locust is a good example, they can be very thorny, or no thorns at all.... So I imagine you can trust what the plaque says. This makes me think I have worked with this stuff before, getting cut-up chunks from the wood dump and assuming it was sweet acacia.... the wood and bark look exactly like it....


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Aug 22, 2016)

thx for the info. i was definitely giving the thorn growth habit a lot of weight.


----------



## David Hill (Aug 23, 2016)

Yeah, after a bit-- went out and looked at some just outside my yard. The thorn thing (they can _vary _from region to region) threw me a little, I'll retract my prior opine.
If you turn it green, it'll move or crack right in front of you-- so do it all in one turning.


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Aug 23, 2016)

David Hill said:


> Yeah, after a bit-- went out and looked at some just outside my yard. The thorn thing (they can _vary _from region to region) threw me a little, I'll retract my prior opine.
> If you turn it green, it'll move or crack right in front of you-- so do it all in one turning.



does that mean, you are in fact sticking with the Huisache id? i'm only a little lost, lol

Reactions: Agree 1


----------



## David Hill (Aug 23, 2016)

Yes, Huisache.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## JR Parks (Aug 23, 2016)

From the A&M website: Last two sentences talk about diff with Huisache or sweet acacia-
Twisted acacia spreads thorny branches low to the ground and grows four to twelve feet in height. It is native to the Edwards Plateau and the South Texas Plains in a variety of soils, especially where land has been disturbed. The stems are dark brown to purple and have paired thorns at the base of each leaf. The leaves are twice compound with two to five pairs of pinnae and ten to fifteen pairs of leaflets. It is quite similar to huisache but can be distinguished by the position of the glands on the leaf stem. Huisache has glands that are below the first pair of leaflets while twisted acacia has glands above the first pair of leaflets.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Aug 23, 2016)

if i knew what glands were i'd be better off. these trees are each at least 20 ft tall in the cactus garden there at ethal m's. i appreciate the details and any opinions you might have


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Aug 24, 2016)

was able to find a picture today on google labeled as huizache chino acacia shaffneri twisted acacia that looks exactly like the tree at the site here in las vegas
http://bios.conabio.gob.mx/especies/6019175

so thank you @David Hill , you are correct. i'd offer you a piece of the wood but sounds like you have it growing in your back yard

side note, on this Wikipedia page, 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vachellia_farnesiana, 
they also call sweet acacia - huisache

making @barry richardson also at least partly correct


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Aug 29, 2016)

trimmed the ends square on those slabs here's a couple of end and side grain pics from the scraps i cut off the ends

Reactions: EyeCandy! 2


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Aug 31, 2016)

put one of those slabs through the planer today. has some really nice grain

Reactions: Like 2


----------

