Surprised some idiot has brought one to the US yet.
“ Surprised some idiot has brought one to the US yet.”
I think it is already here in the south. Its a type of mesquite. The once broad grasslands through texas is now covered in spiny mesquite trees. Cattle eat the beans pods and spread it everywhere. Let a pasture go without maintenance and it will be covered in mesquite in 5-10 years.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
We have native mesquite in the desert Southwest. People and livestock get along with them fine!
“Surprised some idiot has brought one to the US yet.”
We have native Prosopis here in the USA South Texas,Central and West Texas are full of them they are pronounced MESSquite here. Cattle freely graze in the shade they provide and the large pods they drop are full of high protein beans that cattle and people both eat with vigor. Honey bees turn the flowers that made those beans into a dark rich spicy honey second to none it’s high dollar gourmet stuff. The wood which is one of the few that can be burnt green is the basis for all South Texas BBQ. There is a James Beard award-winning location in Austin named Green Mesquite they on my burn yeah green prosopis. Being a true legume prosopis also doesn’t need any nitrogen fertilizers they make their own from thin air via nodules on their roots. They have a deep tap root and do not need any irrigation either they can live and thrive down to 10cm of rainfall per annum only agave or catus do better.
My families 280+ year old cattle land is covered in them wild boar also eat the pods and shoots with vigor we shoot the hogs and BBQ them too. prosopis can be coppiced and it will grow back to a full sized bush vs a single truck tree in ten years with even more pod production and many stems that goats,boar, or sheep will eat. The thorns come after the shoot stage. You can coppice with standards and get back to full sized trees if you know how to manage a coppice with standards it typical forestry knowledge. <<< this is the issue in Kenya the blacks don’t know jack about agroforestry not how to manage a combined grassland / woodland or chaparral / savanna landscape. The root of their issue is not knowing how to manage what should be a winning combination. Texas has a nearly identical climate to sub Saharan Africa the difference is whites knowing how to manage the environment.