Mesquite

Prosopis glandulosa

Straggling shrub or tree to 10 m high, deciduous, glabrous; spines 20–60 mm long.

Leaves bipinnate with 1 or 2 pairs of pinnae; rachis of pinnae 8–20 cm long; leaflets 8–16 pairs per pinna, ± oblong, 8–50 mm long, 15–40 mm wide, 5–15 times as long as broad; petiole 3–6 cm long.

Racemes 5–14 cm long, c. 10 mm diam., usually longer than the leaves; peduncle 4–20 mm long; pedicels c. 0.5 mm long. Calyx glabrous. Stamens c. 4 mm long.

Pods linear, 8–20 cm long, 8–10 mm wide, margins regularly constricted between the seeds, straw-coloured with reddish purple or almost entirely reddish purple, glabrous.