Species
+

Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce

Indian mesquite, ghaf, jand, jand

Climate known 88 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Prosopis cineraria, also known as Persian mesquite or ghaf, chaunkro , jand or khejri, is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. It is native to arid portions of Western Asia and the Indian subcontinent, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, India, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Its leaves are bipinnate. It can survive extreme drought. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Prosopis cineraria”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Prosopis

Prosopis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The current circumscription of the genus contains three species found in northern Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia. Previously it also contained around 40 species of spiny trees and shrubs found in subtropical and tropical regions of the Americas and Africa, now mostly placed in genera Strombocarpa and Neltuma. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Prosopis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(L.) Druce
Native to
Afghanistan, Iran, Gulf States +5
Wild records
330 in range· 118 open

At a glance

Warmest month
39°C
May, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
237mm/yr
3 wet months · peak Jul 63 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–49DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, March and June to September in the northern hemisphere (March and June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 237 mm a year, wettest July at 63 mm, driest October at 5 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 49 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 9.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Acacia cineraria (L.) Willd.; Adenanthera aculeata (J.Koenig ex Roxb.) W.Hunter; Adenanthera aculeata Roxb.; Mimosa cineraria L.; Mimosa cinerea L. and 5 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March and June to September in the northern hemisphere (March and June to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (177 mm of 237 mm) falls in March and June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 30.1 °C against a yearly mean of 26.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March and September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 237 mm a year, wettest July at 63 mm, driest October at 5 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

237 mm a year at the habitat, 177 mm of it March and June to September. Wettest month July at 63 mm, driest October at 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 94 mm to 1037 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 49 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 9.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 9.7 °C, the absolute minimum 6.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.6 °C to 17.3 °C), warmest day 39.3 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 45 to 56% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 23 °C in Jan to 39 °C in May; mean night from 13 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 237 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 234 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 6.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 43.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°43.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)6.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 27–49RH 45–56 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 234 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C23 / 21–2925 / 23–3130 / 26–3435 / 31–3839 / 34–4139 / 33–4236 / 29–4335 / 28–4335 / 29–4034 / 30–3629 / 27–3125 / 22–28
Night °C13 / 8–1714 / 10–1817 / 15–2122 / 20–2425 / 24–2727 / 25–2927 / 24–3026 / 24–3025 / 23–2822 / 19–2518 / 14–2215 / 9–19
Rain mm11 / 2–2415 / 1–3418 / 2–398 / 2–186 / 1–2816 / 0–14563 / 1–34453 / 0–25127 / 0–1655 / 1–935 / 2–2610 / 1–25
DLI28 / 26–3334 / 32–3840 / 38–4346 / 44–4749 / 44–5046 / 34–4838 / 26–4636 / 24–4438 / 31–4136 / 32–3730 / 29–3227 / 25–31
RH %53 / 47–5752 / 44–5748 / 40–5545 / 38–5445 / 39–5749 / 43–6255 / 45–6656 / 46–6754 / 47–6451 / 43–5951 / 44–5654 / 47–57

Each figure is the median across the 234 grid cells holding the 315 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1368:5009 (21.575, 70.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 234 distinct grid cells holding the 315 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1368:5009 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 21.50_70.625, lapse-corrected -10 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 103 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAfghanistan, Iran, Gulf States, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan· introduced: Myanmar, Jawa
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker25.214, 55.592 · in the densest population, 147 records (45% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 330 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 118 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 10 km away. 9 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 15 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 330 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Prosopis cinerariaProsopis cinerariaProsopis cinerariaProsopis cinerariaProsopis cinerariaProsopis cinerariaProsopis cinerariaProsopis cineraria

Photographs: (c) Denys Vynokurov, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Jacky Judas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Siddarth Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Prosopis cineraria, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Community Impacts of Prosopis juliflora Invasion: Biogeographic and Congeneric Comparisons
Rajwant Kaur, Wilfredo L. Gonzáles, Luis D. Llambí, Pascual J. Soriano (2012) · PLoS ONE
Nutrient content of important fruit trees from arid zone of Rajasthan
Mala Rathore (2009) · Journal of Horticulture and Forestry
Factors affecting in vitro clonal propagation of Prosopis cineraria
N. S. Shekhawat, T. S. Rathore, Rakhi Singh, N. S. Deora (1993) · Plant Growth Regulation
Antihyperglycemic, antihyperlipidemic and antioxidative potential of Prosopis cineraria bark
Nidhi Sharma, Veena Garg, Arpita Paul (2010) · Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry
Effect of polyethylene glycol-6000 on nutrient intake, digestion and growth of kids browsing Prosopis cineraria
Raghavendra Bhatta, A. K. Shinde, S. Vaithiyanathan, S. K. Sankhyan (2002) · Animal Feed Science and Technology
Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of Prosopis cineraria based phenolic rich ointment in wound healing
Ekta Yadav, Deepika Singh, Pankajkumar Yadav, Amita Verma (2018) · Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
Fruit Pod Extracts as a Source of Nutraceuticals and Pharmaceuticals
Azila Abdul Karim, Azrina Azlan (2012) · Molecules

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Prosopis 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 29 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.