Another great catch Raman ji regards
prasad On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 10:43 AM, raman <[email protected]> wrote: > > The Mesquite has been introduced in Asia and Africa and is now wide spread > in the semi-arid areas of the world. In many areas, it is considered a > weed. It is a drought resistant small tree, and has been planted in dry > areas of Delhi. It is a deciduous thorny shrub or small tree, to 12 m tall; > trunk to 1.2 m in diameter, bark thick, brown or blackish, shallowly > fissured; leaves compound, commonly many more than 9 pairs, the leaflets > are mostly 5–10 mm long, linear-oblong, glabrous, often hairy, commonly > rounded at the apex; stipular spines, if any, yellowish, often stout; > flowers perfect, greenish-yellow, sweet-scented, spikelike; corolla deeply > lobate. Pods several-seeded, strongly compressed when young, thick at > maturity, more or less constricted between the seeds, 10–25 cm long, brown > or yellowish, 10–30-seeded. Mesquite pods are among the earliest known > foods of prehistoric man in the new world. Today flour products made from > the pods are still popular, although only sporadically prepared, mostly by > Amerindians. Pods are made into gruels, sometimes fermented to make a > mesquite wine > Raman > -- Prasad Kumar Dash Ecologist, Orissa, India email: [email protected] ph. 09437444241
