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Once the pod is dry, the whole pod is edible and can be ground into flour and made into bread. Mesquite is native to the US and can be used as a type of lumber. It was a popular type of wood used by early Spaniards to build ships, but is now used most commonly for high-end rustic furniture and cabinets.
Mesquite flour is made from the dried and ground pods of the mesquite (some Prosopis spp.), a tree that grows throughout Mexico and the southwestern US in arid and drought-prone climates. The flour made from the long, beige-colored seedpods has a sweet, slightly nutty flavor and can be used in a wide variety of applications.
The mesquite contributes greatly to the desert ecosystem. Coyotes, round-tailed ground squirrels, collared peccaries, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and jackrabbits all eat mesquite pods, as do livestock when they are available. [2] Birds feed on the flower buds. As a member of the legume family, mesquites fix nitrogen in the soil.
Mesquite pods also contain significant percentages of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals and have approximately twice the sugar content of sugar beets and sugar cane.
This species of mesquite, known as haas (pronounced ) by the Seri people of northwestern Mexico, is very important for food and nonfood uses. The Seris have specific names for various stages of the growth of the mesquite pod. [18] Historically, it was a very important wild food plant because it fruits even during drought years. [19]
Prosopis pallida is a species of mesquite tree. It has the common names kiawe (/ k iː ˈ ɑː v eɪ /) [2] (in Hawaii), huarango (in its native South America) and American carob, as well as "bayahonda" (a generic term for Prosopis), "algarrobo pálido" (in some parts of Ecuador and Peru), and "algarrobo blanco" (usually used for Prosopis alba).
Flower spikes. Strombocarpa pubescens (formerly Prosopis pubescens), commonly known as screwbean mesquite, [2] is a species of flowering shrub or small tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to the southwestern United States (Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, southern Nevada and Utah) and northern Mexico (Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sonora).
Mesquite: Prosopis spp. Tamaulipan Mezquital: Sweet and nutritious pods edible to humans and livestock. Horses and cattle act as dispersers and abrade the seeds walls, helping it germinate; foxes and coyotes eat the pods and disperse the seeds but do not abrade them. As a result, the mesquite's range began to expand after European colonization.