Prairie wattle or fern acacia is a 1-4 ft., rounded sub-shrub with feathery,deciduous foliage and white, 1/2 in., globe-shaped flower heads on long, upper axillary stalks. This shrub’s thornless stems are graceful and wand-like. Round masses of creamy white or salmon-colored flowers resembling shaving brushes, rising on slender stalks from the axils of compound leaves. This attractive native legume has seeds that are rich in protein; the plant is readily eaten by livestock and decreases in abundance with heavy grazing. The species name, meaning most narrow in Latin, refers to the nature of the leaflets. This species resembles the taller Prairie Mimosa (Desmanthus illinoensis), also a native perennial with doubly pinnately compoundleaves, but not a woody shrub.
The foliage of fern acacia is more impressive than its flowers. The thornless plant makes a good ground cover, colonizing by means of woody rhizomes. Form is variable. After the first hard frost, fern acacia dies to the ground.
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