Screwbean Mesquite

Scientific Name: Prosopis pubescens Benth.

Screwbean Mesquite

General Information
Usda Symbol	PRPU
Group	Dicot
Life Cycle	Perennial
Growth Habits	ShrubTree,
Native Locations	PRPU

Plant Guide

Uses

Ethnobotanic: Various kinds of mesquite trees provided staple foods for indigenous people of southern California, the Great Basin and the Southwest and their seed pods are still highly relished today. Screwbean pods were eaten by the Maricopa, Hualapai, Pima, Cahuilla, Luiseno, Mohave, Panamint and Death Valley Shoshone, the Chemehuevi, Ute, Gosiute, and Southern Paiute groups as far east as the edge of the Colorado Plateau. The pods can be harvested at two different times, in the spring, while still green and consumed raw as snacks or in the late summer when the pods are ripe. If collected in the late summer, traditionally they were placed in bedrock mortars or tree-stump mortars and pounded to fine flour using stone pestles. The meal was set out to dry and then stored in baskets in grass- or bark-lined pits in rock-shelters or caves. Basketfuls of meal were also kept in indigenous homes and added to cooked agave or made into small cakes. Another way to prepare the pods was to cook the screwbeans in pits covered with earth and left to stand three or four days, and then spread to dry. The mass was then pounded in a mortar and the fine meal eaten as pinole. The plant was also important medicinally. The Pima used the bark of the root of the screwbean as a dressing for wounds. There were two ways to prepare the dressing and then these concoctions were applied at different times. First, the bark was boiled and the liquid applied to the fresh wound. Second, the bark was ground up in a mortar, dried, and again pounded into a fine meal in a metate and this powder was applied to the wound after a few days. The Pima also used a tea made from the roots of screwbean to regulate a woman's menstrual troubles. A gummy exudate sometimes found on the bark was gathered and soaked in water and the Moapa Paiute used the resulting liquid as eyewash. The large branches were used in construction such as fencing and binding for large granary baskets made by the Pima, and the Cahuilla sometimes used the smaller branches for bows. The mescal cutter, a long pole that was used by the Cahuilla to sever agave leaves was made of screwbean. The root wood is good for firewood for cooking. Charles Webber © California Academy of Sciences @ CalPhotos Wildlife: Screwbean is an important tree to wildlife. The seeds are eaten by jackrabbits, Gambel quail, songbirds, various small mammals, and domestic livestock. Western chipmunks, ground squirrels, pocket mice, and various species of kangaroo and wood rats consume the foliage. Different birds also nest in the tree's canopy. The early spring growth also furnishes food for domestic livestock.

Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status, such as, state noxious status and wetland indicator values. M. Kat Anderson USDA NRCS NPDC @ PLANTS

Description

General: Pea Family (Fabaceae). This upright, deciduous shrub or tree reaches up to 10 m in height.