Mesquite

Below is a fairly elegant specimen of mesquite (Prosopis velutina) growing near town in Sedona.  More often than not, this shrubby tree has a much scrubbier appearance, but in either case it is prevalent in Sedona and the Sonoran Desert.  Prosopis is a member of the pea family and looks much like its relatives - it has pinnately compound foliage and, more to the point, it has bean-like fruit.

  

One of the common names is honey mesquite, because the beans themselves are incredibly sweet.  The tour I mentioned in yesterday's post also included a sampling of the mesquite beans and they tasted like sugary candy.  Indeed, the plant is eaten by livestock and has been key to survival of Native Americans during historically tough winters.  

The beans can also be ground into a flour called pinole and can then be used to make tortillas and cornbread, to name a few. They can also be fermented into a fizzy, alcoholic drink, though I didn't see this on the bar menus of any restaurants.

 

The Prosopis velutina is native to the Sonoran Desert, but other species of Prosopis include Prosopis glandulosa, in the Texas and Southern California deserts and Prosopis pallida, a South American native that is prevalent in the drier parts of Hawaii.  Below, a specimen of P. pallida grows on the Big Island. 

 

 Prosopis is the ancient Greek name for burdock and it's speculated that the genus was applied to mesquite due to some similarity between the flowers.