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Prosopis pallida (humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Kunth

American carob (en)

Species

Angiosperms > Fabales > Fabaceae > Prosopis

Characteristics

Tree to 10 m tall; branchlets glabrous or sometimes with scattered hairs; spines paired, 4–15 mm long, sometimes absent. Leaves pallid, grey-green when dry; main axes 10–50 mm long, hairy; pinnae 2-4-jugate, rarely 1-jugate, 2–5 cm long; leaflets (7–) 9–15-jugate, oblong-elliptic or ovate, obtuse, apiculate, relatively rigid, coriaceous, lying ± flat when dry, (2–) 4–8 (–10) mm long, 1.5–3 mm wide, 2–4 times as long as wide, moderately pubescent on both surfaces or almost glabrous, ciliolate; internodes of the pinnae axes 2–3.5 mm long. Racemes 8.5–12 cm long, 2–3 times longer than the leaves. Calyx sometimes with scattered hairs outside, usually ciliolate. Pod straight or curved, 7–16 cm long, c. 10 mm wide, pale yellow to golden brown, glabrous; margins parallel or slightly undulate.
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Tree or shrub to 10 m high, with many branches from ground level, unarmed or spiny, with short, axillary, uninodal, geminate, divergent spines less than 4 cm long; bark deeply longitudinally fissured, brown; flowers c. 6 mm long in inflorescences 7-11 cm long. Corolla yellowish green. Pod cylindrical, 6-25 by 1-1.5 cm, compressed with close anastomosing ribs. Seeds brown, oblong, 6.5 mm long.
A spiny tree or shrub. It grows 4-10 m high. The trunk is twisted. The twigs usually have 1 or 2 straight spines in the axils of leaves. The leaflets are 2-4 times as long as wide. They are rough. The flowers are green or yellow. The pods are smooth. They are 5-25 cm long and about 1 cm wide. They are yellowish-brown. The seeds are brown.
Life form perennial
Growth form tree
Growth support free-standing
Foliage retention deciduous
Sexuality hermaphrodite
Pollination entomogamy
Spread -
Mature width (meter) -
Mature height (meter) 10.0
Root system tap-root
Rooting depth (meter) 1.5
Root diameter (meter) -
Flower color -
Blooming months -
Fruit color -
Fruiting months -
Nitrogen fixer
Photosynthetic pathway c3

Environment

A tropical plant. It grows naturally on red alluvial soils and coastal plains. It can grow in arid places.
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This species grows in fine, red, alluvial soil of the coastal plain.
Dry coastlines, often dominating in arid, saline soils.
Light 7-9
Soil humidity 1-6
Soil texture 1-6
Soil acidity -
Soil nutriment -
Hardiness (USDA) 10-12

Usage

The sweet pods are made into syrup used in drinks.
Uses animal food bee plant charcoal drinks dye environmental use fixation of sand dunes fodder food forage fuel gum human nutrition invertebrate food material medicinal ornamental reforestation tanning timber weed wood
Edible fruits pods roots seeds
Therapeutic use -
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

Can be grown by seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.
Mode seedlings
Germination duration (days) -
Germination temperacture (C°) -
Germination luminosity -
Germination treatment soaking
Minimum temperature (C°) -
Optimum temperature (C°) 22 - 28
Size -
Vigor -
Productivity -

Images

Prosopis pallida unspecified picture

Distribution

Prosopis pallida world distribution map, present in American Samoa, Australia, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Mauritius, Peru, Papua New Guinea, United States of America, and Zimbabwe

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:1175026-2
WFO ID wfo-0000184934
COL ID 4MW7C
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN) Link
Wikipedia (FR) Link

Synonyms

Prosopis pallida Mitostax pallida Acacia pallida
WorldFloraDB 2024