MESQUITE, or HONEY LOCUST

This article appears in Volume V18, Page 188 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MEC-MIC

MESQUITE, or HONEY LOCUST , in botany, a tree, native of the southern United States and extending southwards through

Mexico

and the Andean region to' Chile and the Argentine Republic. It is known botanically as Prosopis juliflora, and belongs to the natural order Leguminosae (suborder Mimoseae). It reaches 40 or 50 ft. in height with a trunk usually not more than 6 to 12 in. in

diameter

DIAMETER (from the Cr. &a, through, µErpov, measure)

, and divided a short distance above the ground into numerous irregular' crooked branches forming a loose straggling head. The remarkable development of its main root in relation to water-

supply

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

renders it most valuable as a drys-country plant; the root descends to a

great

GREAT

depth in search of water, and does not branch or decrease much in

diameter

DIAMETER (from the Cr. &a, through, µErpov, measure)

till this is reached. It can thus flourish where'. no other woody plant can exist, and its presence and conditoli afford almost certain indications of the depth of the water-level. When the plant attains the size of a tree, water, will be found within 40 or 50 ft. of the surface; when it grows as a

bush

BUSH

, between 5o or 6o ft.; while, when the roots have to descend below 6o ft., the stems are only 2 or 3 ft. high. These woody roots

supply

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

valuable fuel in regions where no

wood

of fuel value is produced above ground." The leaves are compound, the main

axis

AXIS (Lat. for " axle ")

bearing two or sometimes four secondary axes on which are borne a number of pairs of narrow bluntish leaflets. The minute greenish-white fragrant

flowers

FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

are densely crowdedon slender cylindrical spikes from ri to 4 in. long; the long narrow pods are constricted between the seeds, of which they contain from ten to thirty surrounded by a thick spongy layer of sweet pulp. The

wood

is heavy, hard and close-grained, but not very strong; it is almost indestructible in contact with soil, and is largely used for fence-posts and railway ties. The ripe pods supply the Mexicans and Indians with a nutritious food; and a gum resembling gum arabic exudes from the stem.
An allied species Prosopis pubescens, a small tree or tall shrub, native . of the and regions of the south-western United States, is known as the screw-bean or screw-pod mesquite from the fact that the pods are twisted into a dense screw-like spiral; they are used for

fodder

FODDER

and are sweet and nutritious, but smaller and less valuable than those of the mesquite.
For a fuller account of these trees see Charles Sprague Sargent, Silva of North America, iii. p. 99 (1892).

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