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| ## honey mesquite {#honey-mesquite .Title-Header}                     |
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| *Prosopis glandulosa* Torr. var. *torreyana* (L. Benson) M.C.         |
| Johnston                                                              |
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| Plant Symbol = PRGLT                                                  |
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Contributed by: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & East Bay Regional
Park Botanic Garden

### 

### Uses 

*Ethnobotanic*: Many parts of honey mesquite were useful to indigenous
groups of California, the Southwest and northern Mexico, and some of
these uses are still enacted today. The Cahuilla picked the flowers of
honey mesquite in the spring and roasted them in a pit of heated stones,
after which they were formed into balls and eaten. The blossoms were
also utilized in making a tea. Many tribes in southern California and
the Southwest including the Timbisha Shoshone, Nevada and Utah Southern
Paiute, Kawaiisu, Cahuilla, Panamint, Luiseno, Pima, Yuma, and Commanche
ate the edible pods. The seeds made into a fermented pinole was a
favorite intoxicating drink. The Cahuilla gathered the pods in two
stages, green or ripe. The green pods were pounded into a juicy pulp and
consumed as a summer beverage. The ripe pods were eaten without any
processing or were pounded into a flour in a mortar and then placed in a
vessel, dampened with water, and left for 24 hours to harden. The meal
was formed into cakes and eaten dry, made into a mush, or mixed with
water for a beverage.

All other parts of honey mesquite were used. The leaves were used to
neutralize stomach acidity by the Commanche. The Cahuilla, Kamia, and
Yuma tribes used the inner bark of trunks or branches for cordage and
rough wrapping material. The roots of young trees were harvested and
made into cordage for harpoon lines, to bundle reeds, and make carrying
nets by the Seri of northwestern Mexico. The trunk was made into wooden
mortars and the smaller branches were used for bow making. Sometimes
arrow foreshafts were of mesquite wood. Mesquite made excellent firewood
for cooking, baking pottery, and warmth and mesquite bark was good for
kindling. Large branches were used for construction such as posts for
houses and rafters. The Seri use mesquite to make the ribs of wooden
boats. Thorns were used as a needle in puncturing the skin for tattoos.
Mesquite gum was used to glue foreshafts of arrows and adhere baskets to
mortars. Tribes of the southwest used the gum secreted from the bark to
mend pottery, make candy, and furnish a black dye.
![](media/image2.png){width="2.3854166666666665in"
height="2.082638888888889in"}

*Wildlife*: Honey mesquite is an important tree to wildlife. The seeds
are eaten by jack rabbits, Gambel quail, songbirds, various small
mammal, and domestic livestock. Western chipmunks, ground squirrels,
pocket mice, and various species of kangaroo and wood rats consume the
foliage. Different birds also nest in the tree\'s canopy.

### Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status, such as, state noxious status
and wetland indicator values.

### Description

*General*: Pea Family (Fabaceae). The honey mesquite can penetrate
downward into the water table, often at great depths. This shrub or
small tree reaches less than 10 m in height and has a broad crown of
arched branchlets. The ascending branches have straight, stipular
spines. The jugate leaves have many long, narrow, leaflets that are more
than five times longer than wide, glabrous, and widely spaced on the
rachilla or stem. The greenish yellow flowers have fused petals and in
dense racemes, 5-12 cm. and spikelike. The fruit is a pod with a
prominent beak at the end.

### Distribution

For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this
species on the PLANTS Web site. This plant is the common mesquite tree
of the subtropical scrub south and southeast of the Sonoran desert in
Sonora. In the desert it is found northward from Guaymas on the coast to
the Colorado River and into the low elevation deserts of southeastern
California and western Arizona. It occurs in plains, riverbanks, washes
and playas in grasslands and deserts below 1800 m.

### Establishment

Gather seed pods and remove the seeds from the pods. Scarify the seeds
before planting. Plant scarified seeds in the fall in a well-drained
soil in deep pots. Sprinkle soil on top of the seeds and cover soil with
one-quarter inch of gravel. The seeds should be spaced one-half inch
apart and the pots placed in partial shade. Water the pots right away.
Keep pots moist if the rains are insufficient. As soon as the plants
form one true leaf, transplant one plant per pot and water. Keep the
pots damp. Out plant each seedling, in the ground, the following winter
when dormant in full sun, and well-drained soil. Protect the plants from
animals. Water the plants and keep them damp if annual rains are
insufficient. Continue to water throughout the life of the plant once in
awhile. Mesquite should be lightly damp all summer long.

### Management

The Timbisha Shoshone pruned honey mesquite, keeping areas around the
trees clear of undergrowth, and also of dead limbs and lower branches.
The Cahuilla in southern California also pruned mesquite trees and broke
and cut branches regularly to provide easier access to the seedpods.

### Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

This plant is available through most sources in the southwest
specializing in native seed. Contact your local Natural Resources
Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service) office for
more information. Look in the phone book under "United States
Government." The Natural Resources Conservation Service will be listed
under the subheading "Department of Agriculture."

### References

Barney, R.C. 1989. *Prosopis*. Pages 4-6 IN: *Fabales, Vol. 3, Part B in
Intermountain Flora: Vascular Plants of the Intermountain West, U.S.A*.
Cronquist, A., A.H. Holmgren, N.H. Holmgren, J.L. Reveal, & P.K.
Holmgren (authors). New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York.

Bean L.J. & K.S. Saubel 1972. *Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian knowledge and
usage of plants*. Malki Museum Press, Morongo Indian Reservation,
Banning, California.

Bell, W.H. & E. F. Castetter 1937. *The utilization of mesquite and
screwbean by the aborigines in the American Southwest*. Ethnobiol.
Studies in the American Southwest Bulletin 5. Biological Service.
University of New Mexico 4(5):3-63.

Carlson, G.G. and V.H. Jones 1939. *Some notes on uses of plants by the
Commanche Indians*. Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters Paper
25:517-542.

Coville, F.V. 1892. *The Panamint Indians of California*. The American
Anthropologist 5(4)351-362.

Emery, D.E. 1988. *Seed propagation of native California plants*. Santa
Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara, California.

Felger, R.S. and M.B. Moser 1985. *People of the desert and sea:
Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians*. University of Arizona Press, Tucson,
Arizona.

Fowler, C.S. 1986. *Subsistence*. Pages 64-97 IN: Handbook of North
American IndiansVolume 11, Great Basin. Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.

Fowler, C.S. 1996. *Historical perspectives on Timbisha Shoshone land
management practices, Death Valley, California*. IN: Case Studies in
Environmental Archaeology. E.J. Reitz, L.A. Newsom, and S.J. Scudder
(eds.). Plenum Press, New York, New York.

Krochmal, A., S. Paur, and P. Duisberg 1954. *Useful native plants in
the American Southwestern deserts*. Economic Botany 8(2):3-20.

Martin, A.C., H.S. Zim, & A.L. Nelson 1951. *American wildlife and
plants: A guide to wildlife food habits*. Dover Publications, New York,
New York.

Shreve, F. & I.L. Wiggins 1964. *Prosopis*. Pages 602-605, IN:
Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert Vol. I. Stanford University
Press, Stanford, California.

### Prepared By & Species Coordinators

*M. Kat Anderson*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center

c/o Plant Sciences Department University of California, Davis,
California

*Wayne Roderick*

Former Director of the East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Berkeley,
California

Edited: 30nov00 jsp; 29may03 ahv; 060808 jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
Web site\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

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