Honey mesquite

Prosopis glandulosa, the honey mesquite, is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree or large shrub in the family Fabaceae, native to the desert and semi-desert regions of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it is a dominant or codominant species across much of the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts and the south Texas plains. It typically reaches 5 to 10 metres in height, with a short, often crooked trunk, rough furrowed dark grey-brown bark and a broadly spreading, open crown of zigzag branches armed with paired stout straight thorns up to 5 centimetres long at the nodes. The bright green, alternate, twice-pinnate leaves bear one to two pairs of pinnae each with seven to seventeen pairs of narrow, glabrous, oblong-linear leaflets 2 to 6 centimetres long. Dense, cylindrical, drooping spikes 5 to 10 centimetres long carry numerous small fragrant pale yellow flowers in spring and again after summer rains, attracting honeybees. The fruit is an indehiscent, straight to slightly curved, flattened cream-coloured pod 10 to 20 centimetres long, sweet and rich in sugars.