Description

General: Pea Family (Fabaceae). The honey mesquite can penetrate downward into the water table, often at great depths. This shrub or small tree reaches less than 10 m in height and has a broad crown of arched branchlets. The ascending branches have straight, stipular spines. The jugate leaves have many long, narrow, leaflets that are more than five times longer than wide, glabrous, and widely spaced on the rachilla or stem. The greenish yellow flowers have fused petals and in dense racemes, 5-12 cm. and spikelike. The fruit is a pod with a prominent beak at the end.