Botanical Name: Prosopis chilensis
Synonyms: Prosopis chilensis (Molina) Stuntz,Prosopis chilensis var. glandulosa (Torr.) Standl
Common Name: Chilean mesquite
Description:
Prosopis chilensis is a small to medium sized tree up to 12 m in height and 1 m in diameter; bark brown, fissured; spines a pair, stout, yellow, glabrous; root system reportedly shallow and spreading. The leaves are compound, each with numerous leaflets along several pairs of pinnae. P. chilensis has 10-29 leaflets per pinnae and no more than two pairs of pinnae per leaf. The leaflets are about 1 cm apart.
The flowers are greenish-white to yellow, abundant and occur in spike-like racemes. The pods are beige to off-white, about 15 cm long and 15 mm wide.
The pods have a tendency to be rolled up along the axis. Seeds many, bean-shaped, oblong, 6-7 mm long, flattened, brown, each in 4-angled case.