Click on images to enlarge
infestation (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
habit (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
older stems with thorns (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
leaves and elongated flower cluster (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
twice compound leaves with two pairs of branchlets (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
young leaves with elongated leaflets (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
close-up of elongated leaflets (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
close-up of flowers (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
close-up of seeds (Photo: Steve Hurst at USDA PLANTS Database)
Scientific Name
Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) DC.
Synonyms
Mimosa juliflora Sw.Neltuma juliflora (Sw.) Raf.Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) DC. var. juliflora
Family
Fabaceae: sub-family Mimosoideae (New South Wales)Leguminosae (South Australia)Mimosaceae (Queensland, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory)
Common Names
ironwood, mesquite
Origin
Native to Mexico, Central America (i.e. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) and northern South America (i.e. Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador).
Naturalised Distribution
This species is scattered in some parts of Australia. It has been recorded in northern Queensland, in the coastal districts of western Western Australia and in some parts of South Australia.
Also naturalised overseas in Brazil, the Caribbean, Africa, western Asia (i.e. Iraq), the Indian Sub-continent (i.e. Pakistan and India) and Hawaii.
Notes
Mesquite (Prosopis juliflora ) is regarded as an environmental weed in Queensland and Western Australia, and as a potential environmental weed or "sleeper weed" in many other parts of Australia. The mesquites (Prosopis spp.) are also one of the 20 Weeds of National Significance (WoNS) in Australia.
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