Acaciella hirta (Nuttall) Britton & Rose. Prairie Acacia, Fern Acacia. Phen: Late May-early Jul (-Aug). Hab: Longleaf pine sandhills, glades and ledges over limestone, disturbed sandy areas. Dist: W. LA, AR, and s. MO west to KS, OK, TX and Mexico; disjunct in e. Panhandle FL and n. peninsular FL.

ID notes: Inflorescences are spherical, creamy-white.

Origin/Endemic status: Native

Taxonomy Comments: Isely (1969) mentions that "the status of Florida material referred to [Acacia angustissima] var. hirta is problematic. To my knowledge, these populations are disjunct by several hundred miles from the other forms of the species… There seems no morphological differentiation except for the fact that most (but not all) of my rather limited Florida material represents the glabrate extreme of var hirta". Isely (1969) also gives the flowering dates as "May-July" for the latitudinally similar main range of the "hirta" entity, but August-September" for Florida. Rico & Bachman (2006) in a rangewide assessment of the genus take a broad approach to the Acaciella angustissima complex ("a very variable taxon") and include our material in A. angustissima var. angustissima, defined to include material from se. United States, sw. United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America, but they apparently did not see any material from se. United States in their monograph. Wunderlin & Hansen (2016) treat Florida material even more broadly, in an undifferentiated Acaciella angustissima. Further study using modern techniques is needed.

Synonymy: = S; = Acacia angustissima (Mill.) Kuntze var. hirta (Nutt.) B.L.Rob. – F, GrPl, K1, K3, K4, NcTx, SE3, WH3, Isely (1969), Isely (1998); = n/a – C; > Acacia hirta Nutt. – Tx; > Acacia texensis Torr. & A.Gray – Tx; < Acaciella angustissima – Ar, Fl3, Mex, Mo2; < Acaciella angustissima var. angustissima – FNA, Rico Arce & Bachman (2006)

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