''Prosopis pallida'' is a species of mesquite tree. It has the common names kiawe () (in Hawaii), huarango (in its native South America) and American carob, as well as "bayahonda" (a generic term for ''Prosopis''), "algarrobo pálido" (in some parts of Ecuador and Peru), and "algarrobo blanco" (usually used for ''

Prosopis alba ''Prosopis alba'' is a South American tree species that grows in central Argentina, the Gran Chaco ecoregion, and part of the Mesopotamia, Argentina, Argentine Mesopotamia, as well as Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru. It is known as ''algarrobo blanc ...

''). It is a thorny

legume A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock f ...

, native to

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, Ecuador and Peru, particularly drier areas near the coast. While threatened in its native habitat, it is considered an

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

in many other places. The kiawe is a spreading bush or moderately sized tree, bearing spines, spikes of greenish-yellow flowers, and long pods filled with small brown seeds. It is a successful invasive species due to its ability to reproduce in two ways: production of large numbers of easily dispersed seeds, and

suckering Basal shoots, root sprouts, adventitious shoots, and suckers are words for various kinds of shoots that grow from adventitious buds on the base of a tree or shrub, or from adventitious buds on its roots. Shoots that grow from buds on the base o ...

to create thick monotypic stands that shade out nearby competing plants. It survives well in dry environments due to a long taproot which can reach deep watertables. It is so efficient at extracting moisture from soil that it can kill nearby plants by depriving them of water, as well as by shading them out. It can be found in areas where other plants do not grow, such as sandy, dry, degraded slopes, salty soils, disturbed areas, and rocky cliffs. The tree grows quickly and can live for over a millennium. It makes a good shade tree, if one does not mind the nasty thorns of the fallen branches. Its hard wood is a source of long-burning firewood and

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

. Kiawe pods can be used as livestock fodder, ground into flour, turned into

molasses Molasses () is a viscous substance resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, method of extraction and age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is primarily used to sweeten and flavour foods ...

or used to make beer. The light yellow flowers attract

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

s, which produce from them a sought-after white

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

. Fallen Kiawe branches usually contain sharp spines that can puncture both feet and tires. At times the tree was used to replace forest and prevent erosion, and once it was established it generally dominates the habitat. It was introduced to Puerto Rico and Hawaii as well as New South Wales and Queensland in Australia and is now

naturalize Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

d in those places. The first kiawe was planted in Hawaii in 1828; today it is a ubiquitous shade tree and invasive weed on the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

, but provides

firewood Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellets or chips. Firewood can ...

for heating and cooking. The clearing of kiawe (''huarango'') has been suggested as a major reason for the collapse of the Nazca culture in southern Peru at the beginning of the 6th century AD after an El Niño event led to flooding, erosion and

desertification Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused by ...

. Ecologists consider the huarango important to the ecosystem of the desert area west of the Andes in southern Peru, because of its ability to bind moisture and counter erosion. Despite prohibitions by regional authorities, poor villagers continue to harvest the trees to make charcoal. Efforts are under way to reforest the area with huarangos. In the southwest of Ecuador, ''Prosopis pallida'' and '' Prosopis juliflora'' both display substantial genetic variability due to the (

intraspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...

) cross-pollination of their self-incompatible flowers which are typical of the genus ''Prosopis''. As a result, trees of these species display a range of physical traits that lead to trees of one species resembling descriptions of the other, and the two species are often confused. To compound the difficulty in discerning the species of a given tree, these two species hybridise readily where their ranges overlap. In the semi-arid

Zapotillo Canton Zapotillo Canton is a canton of Ecuador, located in the Loja Province Loja Province () is one of 24 provinces in Ecuador and shares its southern border on the west with El Oro Province, on the north with El Azuay, and on the east with Zamora ...

of Ecuador, both thorn-bearing and thornless strains of ''Prosopis pallida'' exist with thorn-bearing trees being more common. It is the preferred tree of the local people for making charcoal and is sometimes also cut for firewood or fence posts.

History

The first specimen in Hawaii was planted from a seed brought by missionary Alexis Bachelot from the

Palais-Royal The Palais-Royal () is a former royal palace located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Cardinal, it was built for Cardinal ...

Gardens in 1828.

Photos

File:Starr_010206-0227_Prosopis_pallida.jpg, Flower File:Starr 010818-0027 Prosopis pallida.jpg, Pods Image:N Prop S0162.jpg, Spines and leaves Image:Starr_031115-0006_Prosopis_pallida.jpg, Wood File:Starr_010206-0226_Prosopis_pallida.jpg File:Starr 010818-0032 Prosopis pallida.jpg File:Starr 070206-4122 Prosopis pallida.jpg File:Organic white honey.jpg, White honey

References

External links

Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk
project by Kew Gardens
Invasive Species RemedyProsopis pallida (mesquite) CABI Invasive Species Compendium
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q50847702, from2=Q2716266

pallida This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with classical languages to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms. The binomial nomenclature used for animals and plants i ...

Plants described in 1823 Trees of Bolivia Trees of Colombia Trees of Ecuador Trees of Peru Hawaiian cuisine Fodder Taxa named by Aimé Bonpland Taxa named by Alexander von Humboldt