Deciduous treeDrought tolerantPollinatorsNativeFast growing

Honey Mesquite

Prosopis glandulosa

A native shade tree with feathery leaves and yellow flower spikes that make it an excellent bee tree, and its pods feed birds and mammals. Water it deeply while young if you want a tree rather than a shrub, then it handles drought. Its twigs carry sharp thorns, so keep it off paths; it also spreads aggressively.

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Honey Mesquite: flowers — Photo: Joshua Tree National Park, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mature size: 25 × 25 ft; 7.5 × 7.5 m, tall × wide
Hardiness: Zones 6b–10b; USDA
Sun: Full sun
Water: Dry
Blooms: Apr–Jun

Honey Mesquite at its mature size

A mature Honey Mesquite grows 25 to 30 feet tall and just as wide, taller than most people.

Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.

Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: npsot.org, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Through the year

What Honey Mesquite looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.

Dormant · Dec–Feb

Bare dark twisting branches.

New growth · Mar–Apr

Fresh bright green feathery leaves with pale yellow flower catkins.

In leaf · May–Nov

Airy crown of fine feathery bright green leaflets.

Photos

Honey Mesquite: detail — Detail · Joshua Tree National Park, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Growing Honey Mesquite

Grows well in: The Plains and Mountain West and the desert Southwest.
Growth rate: Fast
Good for: Drought tolerant, pollinators, and fast growing
Leaves: Drops its leaves in winter
Native to: Southwestern and south-central United States and Northern Mexico

Spacing

VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Honey Mesquite, that’s about 25 ft apart, center to center.

Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.