There are three types of mesquite tree that grow in this region. The seeds became scarified by mastication, preparing them for germination. Mesquite trees have a long taproot that they use to locate enough moisture to keep them alive. They may have single or multiple-branched stems, with each plant assuming its own distinctive shape – and come armed with thorns on their smaller branches. “When our provisions and coffee ran out, the men ate [mesquite beans] in immense quantities, and roasted or boiled them!” During the Civil War, when groceries often ran short, mesquite beans served as passable coffee. When the Ice Ages ended, however, the large herbivores died out, becoming extinct, and rainfall diminished. The benefits of the mesquite tree far outweigh any perceived shortcomings. It extends from the Sonoran Desert in southern California to southwestern Utah. Chilean Mesquite Trees. One is the honey mesquite, another is the screwbean mesquite, and finally there is the velvet mesquite. Their thorns, sharply pointed and strong, challenge browsing by desert herbivores. It belongs to Prosopis genus, which comprises more than 40 species. The velvet mesquite is bigger than the other two, with a diameter that can reach 2 feet and growing to an average of 30 feet. Seven species of mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa, P. juliflora, P. pubescens, and others) cover some 54 million acres of Texas, and parts of Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Mexico. “Of the tree mesquite,” said Dobie, “there is one kind of yellowish wood and another of a deep reddish hue as beautiful when polished as the richest mahogany.” In some areas, mesquites provide a bountiful harvest of wood for use in fireplaces and barbecue grills. Desert Lil's Cookin' with Mesquite. The mesquites have largely thwarted any attempt at control, including planned burns, herbicides or physical removal – all methods with a high cost and potential environmental damage. “Fire has been used as a management tool to control mesquite distribution for decades” said Wilson and his associates. They throw the meal into a basket-like jar and pour water on it until it is covered, “Then all squat round, and each takes out as much as he can with one hand. Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus Prosopis, which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. If mesquites have arrived as intruders in the view of cattlemen of the Southwest, they have, by contrast, long been a welcome presence in the larders, livestock feed bins, workshops, gardens and medicine cabinets in the perspective of many desert residents. (“They will not decay in the flesh or gristle as will prickly pear thorns,” Dobie said, “but will last longer than any flesh in which they become imbedded.”) Their leaves, small and wax coated, minimize transpiration (evaporation of the plant’s water into the atmosphere). Deprived of their animal agents for distribution and faced with intensifying competition for water and nutrients, mesquites retreated to the flood plains and washes, forfeiting the higher elevation landscapes to the grasses. The mesquites’ encroachment into pasturelands and displacement of grasses has frustrated cattlemen, who unwittingly fostered the advance in the first place by overgrazing. There are recorded instances of taproots of the mesquite tree reaching a depth of almost 200 feet down into the soil. The North American Deserts (see Reference 1) They are in the bean family. The screwbean mesquite, identified by its tightly spiraled bean pods, has established as its basic range the northern Sonoran Desert up into the Mojave Desert. Further, mesquites remained contained by frequent wildfires fueled by the grasses, which recovered within a season. Mesquite is the most common shrub/small tree of the desert southwest. Most of the places that you will find mesquite trees in have a low annual rainfall. “I ask for no better monument over my grave than a good mesquite tree.”, Mesquite meal It has 4-inch long spikes and an 8-inch fruit, like the honey mesquite does. (It's Free. Lindell worked in greyhound racing for 25 years. Where distributions of the species overlap, the plants hybridize, often making identification difficult. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); DesertUSA Newsletter -- We send articles on hiking, camping and places to explore, as well as animals, wildflower reports, plant information and much more. Typically, the legumes, which have woody stems and branches, produce bipinnately compound leaves (leaves with two or more secondary veins, each with two rows of leaflets). In lateral reach, they outcompete other plants in the battle for soil moisture. When European descendants moved into the desert Southwest, mesquites found a new ally, domesticated livestock, especially cattle. Sign up below or read more about the DesertUSA newsletter here. John Lindell has written articles for "The Greyhound Review" and various other online publications. Uninvited guest or welcome neighbor, the mesquites belong to the desert. The sweetness comes from fructose, which the body can process without insulin. Herbicides, usually applied by aircraft, have also been used for decades in attempts to control the mesquites. 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