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MESQUITE (Prosopis juliflora)
SCREW BEAN MESQUITE (Prosopis pubescens)
Other names: desert mesquite

FAIR TO VERY GOOD

The mesquites are found in the southwest, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and California. They are a "desert" tree, low growing, hard, durable, 1 to 3 ft. in diameter, and live in excess of 125 years. The screw bean mesquite often called desert mesquite, has long, very sharp thorns. The regular mesquite thorns are only an inch or so in length. Usually these trees are scrubby and are hard to get into when cutting survey line through them. Mesquites reach their largest size near washes or in bottom lands, such as along  the Colorado or Gila Rivers. On mature trees the bark is rough and fissured. The seed pod is like a bean or pea pod. 

Original mesquite bearing trees are often healed and difficult to identify. When the blaze is still open the scribing is usually weathered and illegible. The wood is hard and will last for years after the tree has died. If not cut for firewood the original mesquite will most likely to be there. 

Choose the younger and better formed mesquite. Do not cut off more limbs than necessary to get at the trunk. Keep the blaze to a minimum, through the thin sapwood and use a sharp scribe with ample pressure. Paint thoroughly.