Honey Mesquite
Prosopis glandulosa
A wide-spreading desert tree with weeping branches and fragrant pale-yellow catkins, a nitrogen-fixer whose deep roots tap groundwater across the southern plains and deserts. The sweet, protein-rich pods have long been dried and ground into a staple flour (pinole), and immature pods are cooked like green beans.
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Type
- tree
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 15–30 ft
- Spacing
- 15–35 ft apart
- Light
- sun
- Soil moisture
- moist
- Soil pH
- neutral, alkaline
- Bloom
- February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September
- Bloom colors
- yellow
- Wildlife value
- butterflies, larval host
- Landscape uses
- specimen, hedge or screen, erosion control
- Native states
- CO, KS, NM, OK, TX