Mesquite refers to several species of thorny trees and shrubs in the genus Prosopis, native to the arid regions of the Americas. The trees produce long, bean-like pods that contain seeds surrounded by a sweet, starchy pulp. Indigenous peoples of North and Central America have relied on mesquite pods as a staple food for millennia.
The pods can be ground into flour (mesquite meal), which has a sweet, nutty, slightly caramel-like flavour. This flour is used in baking, as a thickener, or eaten as-is. Mesquite wood is also widely known as a flavouring agent for barbecue smoking, though the food product comes from the pods, not the wood.
Mesquite trees are remarkably drought-tolerant, with taproots that can reach groundwater tens of metres below the surface. This resilience makes them both an ecologically important species in desert landscapes and, in some regions, an invasive pest — including parts of inland Australia, where they were introduced and have spread aggressively.
How it's produced
Mesquite pods are almost entirely wild-harvested. The trees grow naturally across arid and semi-arid regions, producing pods that ripen and fall to the ground in late summer. Harvesters collect the dried pods by hand or with rakes, then mill them into flour using hammer mills or stone grinding.
There is limited commercial cultivation of mesquite, though interest is growing as a drought-resistant crop. Most mesquite flour on the market comes from wild-harvested pods in the southwestern United States and parts of South America. In Australia, mesquite is classified as a weed of national significance, and some operations harvest pods from feral stands as a form of land management.
What it costs the planet (per kilo)
≈ Estimated from its category — typical for legumes & pulses, not measured for this item yet. Sources & methods →
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