Prosopis juliflora

Scientific Classification

Division : Angiospermae

Class : Dicotyledonae

Order : Fabales

Family : Fabaceae

Genus : Prosopis

Species : juliflora

Vernacular names

English - Mesquite , Velvet Mesquite , Algaroba
Hindi - angaraji babul, Junglee kikar, Vilayati babul
Gujarati - baval, Marwari, baavlia
Kannada - Ballaari Jaali
Tamil - cheemai karuvel , velikathan , Peavel
Telugu - Mulla tumma , Sarkar tumma

The mesquite tree grows to a height of up to 12 metres. and has a trunk with a diameter of up to 1.2 metres.Its or small tree, to 12 m tall; trunk to 1.2 m in diameter, bark thick, brown or blackish, shallowly fissured; leaves compound, commonly many more than 9 pairs, the leaflets are mostly 5–10 mm long, linearoblong, glabrous, often hairy, commonly rounded at the apex. Flowers shortly after leaf development. The flowers are in 5–10 cms. long greenyellow cylindrical spikes, which occur in clusters of 2 to 5 at the ends of branches. Pods are 20 to 30 cms. long and contain between 10 and 30 seeds per pod. A mature plant can produce hundreds of thousands of seeds. Seeds remain viable for up to 10 years. Seeds are spread by cattle and other animals that consume the seed pods and spread the seeds in their droppings.

Uses

Mesquite pods are among the earliest known foods of prehistoric man in the new world. Today flour products made from the pods are still popular, although only sporadically prepared, mostly by Amerindians. Pods are made into gruels, sometimes fermented to make a mesquite wine. The leaves can be used for forage. Providing good bee pasturage also, nectar from mesquite yields a superior honey. The wood is used for parquet floors, furniture, and turnery items, fencepost, pilings, as a substrate for producing singlecell protein, but most of all for fuel. Toasted seeds are added to coffee. Bark, rich in tannin, is used for roofing in Colombia. The gum forms an adhesive mucilage, used as an emulsifying agent. Gum is used in confectionary and mending pottery. Roots contain 6–7% tannin, which might discourage Rhizobia