Acacia caven

Espino is the thorn tree of the South American dry country, the signature shrub of central Chile's espinal, where it grows so thickly alongside the Chilean wine palm that it gives whole landscapes their character. Its range runs on through Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Spiny and twiggy, armed with stiff, pale, almost-white thorns, it is handsome from a distance and best handled with gloves. Botanists now file it under Vachellia, though the gardening world still knows it as Acacia caven.

Few small trees have been put to such varied use. Its dense wood makes some of the finest charcoal in Chile and burns long as firewood; straight stems become fence posts. The tannin-rich seedpods were gathered for curing hides, the fragrant flowers distilled for perfume, and the same blossoms keep beekeepers in honey. It is, in short, a tree a whole dry country has leaned on.

In earliest spring it earns every bit of affection at once. The bare, thorny branches break into a haze of small golden puffball flowers, intensely and sweetly fragrant, a scent that carries on warm air long before most things have woken. Fast to establish and short-lived by temperament, it takes heat, drought, and poor soil in stride, making a rounded little tree of perhaps thirteen to sixteen feet.

In the garden it is a specimen for hot, difficult places. Plant it where the early scent can reach a path or doorway, where the pale thorns and fine ferny leaves catch the light, and where its angular, almost calligraphic winter silhouette can be read against an open sky. Pair it with other xeric, sun-loving plants and let it thrive where softer things give up.