MESQUITE
Kaye Herweg

Mesquite is the most common shrub/small tree of the Desert Southwest. Like many of members of the legume family, mesquite restores nitrogen to the soil.

Native Americans relied on the mesquite pod as a dietary staple from which they made tea, syrup, and ground meal called Pinole. They also used the bark for basketry, fabrics and medicine. A favorite of bees and other insects, mesquite flowers produce a fragrant honey.

Medical studies of mesquite and other desert foods show that despite its sweetness, mesquite flour is extremely effective in controlling blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. The sweetness comes from fructose, which the body can process without insulin. In addition, soluble fibers, such as galactomannin gum in the seeds and pods slow absorption of nutrients, resulting in a flattened blood sugar curve, unlike the peaks that follow consumption of wheat flour, corn meal and other common staples.

The sweet pods are a good source of calcium, manganese, iron and zinc.
The seeds within are 40% protein. The gel-forming fiber allows foods to be
slowly digested and absorbed over a 4 to 6 hour period, rather than 1 or 2
hours, which produces a rapid rise in blood sugar.

Nutrition Facts: 100% natural mesquite meal serving size 2 tablespoons.
Amount per serving: Calories 30: Calories from fat 2: Sodium 0 mg. Total carbohydrates 6 g: Dietary fiber 3 g: Sugar 1 g: Protein 1 g:
Not a significant source of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, vitamins A and C, Calcium or iron.
Source: DESERT USA

Mesquite Tree Biology

PROSOPIS VELUTINA (P. JULIFLORA)- VELVET MESQUITE, MEZQUITE (Leguminosae - Pea Family):
Spanish name(s): mezquite, algarobba
Tohono and Hia c-ed O'odham name: kui
Akimel O'odham name: kui chepelk
Yeome name: hu'upa
This is the most common native mesquite around Tucson. Blooms (yellow) April - May (blooms again in Aug.). Allergenic - 2. Seed pod harvest June - September with 10 sq. ft. of tree yielding up to 13 bushels or more of pods (Podems and Bortz, 1975). 1,000 - 5,000'. Multi-trunked tree with shreddy bark, grey-green fern-like leaves and branches that curve with loads of character. Younger portions of tree have some thorns. Grows to 30'. Fast growth. Long
lived. Prefers full sun. Cold hardy to 5oF. Found in flood plains and along arroyos. Nitrogen - fixing (Turner, et al 1995). Pioneer. Wildlife - doves, quail, and ravens eat the seedpods; big horn sheep eat the seedpods; rabbits, coyote, ground squirrel, k-rats, antelope, skunk, wolf, eat the seeds, leaves, and bark; twigs and foliage - deer; flowers attract 60 species of native bees, along with wasps and butterflies (Bowers, 1993); a nectar and larval plant for butterflies; excellent bee fodder; nesting site for white-winged and morning doves; host plant for mistletoe which attracts birds such as the phainopepla. Edible - the Gila Pima have utilized the pods as a major food staple in the form of flour, porridge, drinks, and cakes (Rea, 1997); the Cahuilla would keep a basin, containing half-crushed mesquite pods filled with water, for all to quench their thirst in the hot summer months (Bean and Saubel, 1972); I boil mesquite pods in a volume of water twice the volume of mesquite beans along with a cinammon stick for two hours, let it sit overnight, strain out the solids, then I've got one tasty drink which I usually serve chilled!; the mesquite bean provides protein, carbohydrates, and calcium with four tablespoons of mesquite meal providing 70 calories (Niethammer, 1974); the ground pods can be used for foods ranging from crackers to breads to mousse (Niethammer, 1987), (Niethammer, 1974); the tree is a source of gum arabic-like gum (Facciola, 1998); dry pods ground and fermented made a food similar to old English mead (Curtin, 1997); cooked pods can produce molasses (Moore, 1989); catkins have been eaten as a starvation food (Rea, 1997); blossoms were picked by the Cahuilla, pit roasted, and then squeezed into balls ready for eating. Prepared blossoms were stored in pottery vessels and cooked as needed in boiling water. Blossoms also used to make a tea (Bean and Saubel, 1972); sap resin used as candy (Rea, 1997); sap was collected in dry months before the monsoon rains and ground to make a candy (personal communication with Cipriano 7/1/2000); pods can be used to make atole and jelly (English, 1981); good food for diabetcis (Nabhan, 1991). Cicadas and an unidentified grasshopper-like insect were gathered in mesquite groves and roasted whole by the Cahuilla for a tastey delicacy (Bean and Saubel, 1972). Medicinal (Felger and Moser, 1985), (Russell, 1975), (Curtin, 1997), (Kay, 1996), (Moore, 1989), (Rea, 1997), (Bigfoot), (Niethammer, 1974), (Bean and Saubel, 1972). Other uses - wonderful garden tree (Nabhan, 1985) (not only does it fertilize the soil and protect what is under its canopy, but its leafing out in spring is a sign that the frosts are over until fall); leaf drop can be heavy - which is great for building soil; wood used for building and crafts; wood is used to smoke food, but a handful of dry seed pods thrown in a fire can be used in place of the mesquite wood to obtain the same smokey flavor without the loss of good mesquite wood; wood used to make plows and smaller limbs used to make bows (Bean and Saubel, 1972); root fiber makes cordage (Felger and Moser, 1985); bark is pounded, rubbed and pulled to make soft fiber for weaving nets and skirts (Nabhan and West, 1998); inner bark makes good basketry material (Kearney and Peebles, 1951); rubbed and pounded bark made into baby diapers (Cheatham, 1998); slender stems used to make cradleboard frames (Felger and Moser, 1985); bark and pitch used to make black dye and paint for ceramics and hair (Felger and Moser, 1985), (Russell, 1975), (Rea, 1997); wood used for construction, harpoon shafts, fine woodwork, fire drills, fish hooks, violin bows, and pestles (Felger and Moser, 1985); gum from bark used to make glue (Kearney and Peebles, 1951); mesquite groves are indicators of ground water (Bean and Saubel, 1972); seed pods used as livestock fodder (Russell, 1975), (Podems, 1975); goats and cattle also eat the leaves and bark; chickens like the seed and ground pods; great honey plant (Kearney and Peebles, 1951). Wonderful nurse plant. Caution - ingestion of large amounts of mesquite by cattle (when it is the exclusive source of fodder) over an extended period of time results in rumen stasis and impaction with associated symptoms, and eventually death (Kingsbury, 1964). Guild plants – canyon hackberry, velvet ash, Atriplex canenscens, panicgrass, six-weeks grama, fringed amaranth, jojoba, desert honeysuckle, desert hackberry, condalia, greythorn, wolfberry, mormon tea, hopbush, barberry, Texas mulberry, barrel, Christmas cholla. Deciduous. LW (2).

PROSOPIS PUBENSCENS - SCREWBEAN, TORNILLO (Leguminosae-Pea Family): Blooms yellow (April - summer). Allergenic 2. 4,000' and below. Large shrub to small, multi-trunked tree with medium green, fern-like leaves and shaggy bark. Thorns on younger growth. Grows 15-20' tall. Moderate growth rate. Moderate lifespan. Found in flood plains and along dry washes or low desert streams. Prefers full sun. Cold hardy to 0oF. Edible - pods can be eaten raw, roasted, ground (Russell, 1975), or made into an alcoholic drink (Facciola, 1998); boiled pods can make a fair molasses (Moore, 1989), (Curtin, 1997), (Facciola, 1998); pods soaked, dried, and pounded to make flour were once a major staple food among the Gila Pima (Rea, 1997); good food for diabetics (Nabhan, 1991). I find the screwbean pods easier to process than the other mesquites due to the smaller, softer seeds and have often used them with schoolchildren when teaching them how to make primitive mesquite cakes. Unlike the other mesquite pods the screwbean pods can be roughly ground seed, pod, and all (the seeds don't need to be seperated) by hand in a stone mortar into a course flour. To make the mesquite cakes, the flour is mixed in hand with water and patted into a small, round biscuit shape. The biscuits are dried in the sun and can then be eaten any time as is or mixed with liquid to soften them up. The kids love it and so do I! I boil mesquite pods in a volume of water twice the volume of mesquite beans along with a cinammon stick for two hours, let it sit overnight, strain out the solids, then I've got one tasty drink which I usually serve chilled!

Medicinal (Curtin, 1997), (Moore, 1989), (Russell, 1975), (Rea, 1997).
Other uses - fruit and leaves as browse for livestock (Kearney and Peebles, 1951)
branches make good fuel and fence posts (Curtin, 1997), (Rea, 1997)
bark used for basketry (Rea, 1997); root fiber used for cordage (Cheatham, 1998)
wood used for bows and cradleboard frames (Rea, 1997)
wood used for tool handles (Kearney and Peebles, 1951)
windbreak (Mielke, 1993)
gum used as an adhesive (Cheatham, 1998). Deciduous. LW(2).

Preferred Mesquite Trees to Plant

Whatever mesquite is native to your area.

In Tucson, we recommend the native Velvet Mesquite (Prosopis velutina). This is a very hardy, low-water-use, fast-growing tree. Unlike the non-native Chilean or South American hybrids, this indigenous tree rarely blows over in winds and very seldomly heaves adjacent sidewalks or foundations. In addition, it produces harvestable pods both in the early summer and late summer.

An additional recommended mesquite for Tucson is the Screwbean Mesquite (Prosopis pubescens). While not as large or drought-tolerant as the Velvet Mesquite, the Screwbean is fast-growing and produces an unusual and very tasty screwbean pod. This tree used to be far more common growing along the Santa Cruz in the days of perennial water flow.

In Southeastern Arizona, the Honey Mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) is native.

These native mesquites are superior to non-native mesquites in terms of providing wildlife habitat. Native plants attract native wildlife, since the two have coevolved over millenia.