Acacia farnesiana
Linnaeus

Acacia farnesiana, Huisache, courtesy of Melody Lytle (image to come)

"Huisache is a lovely, intensely fragrant vase-shaped tree native to South Texas and Mexico. The small, ball-shaped bright gold flowers are borne in profusion from February through April. Huisache grows on the heavier, wetter clays and clay loams of the Rio Grande Plains to Big Bend National Park. It is an extremely durable plant, adapted to most soils as long as they are well drained. The branches are armed with paired spines up to two inches long."

Huisache, a small, evergreen to semievergreen tree (height to thirty feet; width to forty feet) likes full sun, requires little water and can tolerate high temperatures.

It is adaptable but prefers an alkaline zoil. It is hardy to SDA Hardiness Zone: 8,but harch winters in that zone will impair spring flowering.

The seed pod, a rounded cylinder less than three inches long, does not shatter on ripening.

The following Saturniidae utilize Acacia farnesiana as a larval host.
Automeris illustris
Psilopygida crispula
Syssphinx blanchardi
Syssphinx heiligbrodti
Syssphinx montana

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This page is presented by Bill Oehlke.

This site is presented as an extension of the
World's Largest Saturniidae Site, a private worldwide silkmoth site,
Caterpillars Too!, a private North American butterfly site featuring images of caterpillars,
Sphingidae of the Americas, a free public access site about the Sphingidae (Hawkmoths) of the Americas.
and
North American Catocala, a free publc access site about the Catocala (underwing moths) of North America.

Tree information is from Aggie Horticulture

Larval hostplant lists have been compiled from the Natural History Museum's
HOSTS - a database of the world's Lepidopteran hostplants