79-PROSOPIS JULIFLORA (Sw.) DC
Local name: Kabuli Keekar
Family: Mimosaceae
Location: Parking area behind Dargah
Characters: Growing to a height of up to 12 metres. It has a trunk diameter of up to 1.2 m. Its leaves are deciduous, geminate-pinnate, light green, with 12 to 20 leaflets. Flowers appear shortly after leaf development. The flowers are in 5–10 cms long green-yellow cylindrical spikes, which occur in clusters of 2 to 5 at the ends of branches. Pods are 20 to 30 cm long and contain between 10 and 30 seeds per pod. A mature plant can produce hundreds of thousands of seeds. Seeds remain viable for up to 10 years. The tree reproduces solely by way of seeds, not vegetatively. Seeds are spread by cattle and other animals, which consume the seed pods and spread the seeds in their droppings. Its roots are able to grow to a great depth in search of water: in 1960, they were discovered at a depth of 53 m at an open-pit mine near Tucson, Arizona, putting them among the deepest known roots. This species has thorns in pairs at the nodes. The species has variable thorniness, with nearly thornless individuals appearing occasionally.
General use: The sweet pods are edible and nutritious, and have been a traditional source of food for indigenous peoples in Peru, Chile and California. Pods were once chewed during long journeys to stave off thirst. They can be eaten raw, boiled, dried and ground into flour to make bread, stored underground, or fermented to make a mildly alcoholic beverage. The species' uses also include forage, wood and environmental management. The plant possesses an unusual amount of the flavanol(-)-mesquitol in its heartwood. One of the species most frequently harvested for multiple forest products.