Prosopis Species, Chilean Mesquite, White Carob Tree

I Love, Love, Love this Tree! I have the Thornless Variety of the Chilean Mesquite, and it is a Beauty! With it's Multiple Trunks, and ...Read MoreVast Canopy, it Provides a Beautiful, Shady Oasis in our Otherwise, Extremely HOT Backyard.

The Tree can be a Bit Messy, and Grows at an Exorbitant rate, so if you are not one that enjoys Yardwork, then this is probably Not the tree for you. This Tree Must be kept Thinned out, to allow wind to pass through its Expansive Branches. If you fail to ignore this important point, then the chances are high that you will lose your Beautiful Tree during Monsoon Season.

Please, please please, consider planting Native Mesquites instead. I know that they are not as large, but the Chileans are ruining our na...Read Moretive varieties (not to mention falling over on houses and cars because of their shallow roots!). **Most importantly, their pollen is mixing with the Velvet Mesquites and producing hybrids that do not have the delicious and diabeticly nutritious pod flour. If you live here, then please be a friend to the desert and care for our natives. Thanks :)

As others have mentioned, this tree can be MESSY. Our big one is a thornless hybrid, over 30 feet tall, about 15 years old. It drops leav...Read Morees, twigs, pollen, flowers, seed pods... The leaves are tiny and follow you into the house, the car, and accumulate in cracks and crevices. Maybe one month out of the year where some portion of this tree isn't raining down on us.

We never water or fertilize it, and it still grows like a weed. Every year we spend hundreds of dollars to trim its ridiculously rampant growth. During active growth, it shoots out these LONG green branches, almost like a weeping willow. Last year our tree guy gave it some growth inhibitor, and I'm praying it works, I'm tired of shelling out big bucks to trim this tree. (Although we love the mesquite trimmings for barbecues.)

On the other hand, we have a smaller "thornless" specimen, 5-6 years old, that is much better behaved ... so far. It doesn't seem to be as fast-growing, nor as messy, although that may change as it gets older. Despite the name, this one has rose bush-size thorns on the older growth.

Pluses include nice shade, attracts birds, and no special care required, other than cleaning up the mess. I won't get rid of it, but if I ever need to replace it, it won't be with another mesquite. It could be there are variations in the Chilean mesquites and their hybrids, and we may have just gotten stuck with a very annoying one.

Our mesquite tree is extremely messy and when the pods drop, they leave stains on our concrete sidewalk that I have not been able to get ...Read Moreup, even with detergents, bleach, muriatic acid and a pressure washer.