Vachellia farnesiana, also known as Acacia farnesiana, and previously Mimosa farnesiana, commonly known as sweet acacia, huisache, or needle bush, is a species of shrub or small tree in the legume family, Fabaceae. Its flowers are used in the perfume industry. Description The plant is deciduous over part of its range, but evergreen in most locales. Growing from multiple trunks, it reaches a height of . The bark is whitish gray. The base of each leaf is accompanied by a pair of thorns on the branch. The dark brown fruit is a seed pod. Taxonomy Taxonomic history It was first described by Europeans under the name Acacia Indica Farnesiana in 1625 by Tobias Aldini from plants grown in Rome in the Farnese Gardens from seed collected in Santo Domingo, in what is now the Dominican Republic, which germinated in 1611. Aldini included an illustration of the plant, which he contrasted with an illustration of the first known Acacia; Acacia nilotica. This first (European) illustration of the plant was later designated as the (lecto-)type. In 1753, Carl Linnaeus used Aldini's work as basis for his taxon Mimosa farnesiana. In 1806 Carl Ludwig Willdenow moved this taxon to the genus Acacia. Partly due to its wide distributional range, the taxon has attracted many synonyms. Especially in the United States, the taxonomy has been confused. In 1809, Willdenow described Acacia acicularis from Central America collected and named during Humboldt and Bonpland's scientific expedition to the Americas. Acacia ferox was described in 1843 in Belgium from collections in Mexico. Acacia lenticellata was described in 1859 for the plants found growing throughout Australia. In the Prodromus Florae Peninsulae Indiae Orientalis of 1834, Wight & Arnott, attempted to split the burgeoning genus Acacia by moving a number of the Acacia species growing in India to the new genus Vachellia. This was not widely followed, nonetheless in 1933, Small verified Alexander's name Vachellia densiflora for plants growing in Louisiana, and awarded V. peninsularis and V. insularis to different populations of the plants growing in Florida. In 1936, Cory moved Vachellia densiflora to Acacia densiflora, but as this name had already been used for another taxon, and was therefore invalidated sensu Cory, in 1969, this taxon was renamed A. smallii by Isely. In 1948, F. J. Herm. synonymised Vachellia peninsularis and V. insularis under Acacia pinetorum. In 1933, M. E. Jones named plants he collected in Mexico Pithecellobium