Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Thursday - March 15, 2012

From: Amargosa Valley, NV
Region: Rocky Mountain
Topic: Trees
Title: Lifespan of Screwbean mesquite from Amargosa Valley NV
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I see the lifespan of the honey mesquite but not the screwbean (especially in the southern Nevada area - Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge area). What is their normal lifespan?

ANSWER:

We looked at our webpages at all three species of the genus Prosopsis that had "honey mesquite" as one of its common names: Prosopis glandulosa (Honey mesquite), Prosopis glandulosa var. glandulosa (Honey mesquite), and Prosopis glandulosa var. torreyana (Western honey mesquite). None of those pages mentioned a lifespan of those plants, nor did the page on Prosopis pubescens (Screwbean mesquite), so you obiously found the information somewhere else.

Amargosa Valley, in Nye County, is one of the two counties in Nevada shown on this USDA Plant Profile map as having the screwbean growing natively. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower and Mr. Smarty Plants are committed to the growth, protection and propagation of plants native not only to North America but to the area in which those plants grow natively. Native plants are adapted to rainfall, soils and climate and will have better success in the environment.

Since we didn't have the information you were looking for on our website, we went looking on the Internet. You say you know the lifespan of Honey Mesquite, and since they are closely related, both in the genus Prosopsis, we are betting the lifespans would be equal or close to the same.

From the Image Gallery

Screwbean mesquite
Prosopis pubescens