Species
+

Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) DC.

Mesquite, Mesquitebaum, Prosopis, Mesquite, Algaroba bean, Mexican thorn, Ironwood, Zépinard, Algaroba

Climate known 44 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

Neltuma juliflora , formerly Prosopis juliflora, is a shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae, a kind of mesquite. It is native to Mexico, South America and the Caribbean. It has become established as an invasive weed in Africa, India, Asia, Australia and elsewhere. It is a contributing factor to continuing transmission of malaria, especially during dry periods when sugar sources from native plants are largely unavailable to mosquitoes.

Text from Wikipedia, “Neltuma juliflora”, 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
(Sw.) DC.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +24
Wild records
111 in range· 11 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Sep, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
643mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Oct 95 mm (CHELSA)
Light
32–41DLI
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 sharp rainy season, August to January and June at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 643 mm a year, wettest October at 95 mm, driest March at 15 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 20.6 °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 juliflora (Sw.) Willd.; Algarobia juliflora (Sw.) Benth.; Algarobia juliflora (Sw.) Heynh.; Entada juliflora (Sw.) Roberty; Mimosa furcata Desf. and 4 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, August to January and June at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

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

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (468 mm of 643 mm) falls in August to January and June. The temperature curve is flat, 2.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 643 mm a year, wettest October at 95 mm, driest March at 15 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

643 mm a year at the habitat, 468 mm of it August to January and June. Wettest month October at 95 mm, driest March at 15 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 494 mm to 1684 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: 32 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 41 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 20.6 °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 20.6 °C, the absolute minimum 17.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 23.6 °C in December (across the envelope cells 18.2 °C to 25.4 °C), warmest day 28.1 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.6 °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: 63 to 66% 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 26 °C in Feb to 28 °C in Sep; mean night from 24 °C in Dec to 26 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 643 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 59 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°35°40°38.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 32–41RH 63–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 59 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 °C26 / 24–3026 / 26–3126 / 26–3127 / 26–3227 / 25–3127 / 24–3227 / 23–3328 / 22–3228 / 22–3228 / 22–3127 / 22–3027 / 23–30
Night °C24 / 18–2524 / 18–2525 / 19–2525 / 19–2625 / 21–2625 / 22–2626 / 21–2626 / 21–2725 / 20–2724 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 18–25
Rain mm49 / 12–17933 / 8–15615 / 5–16037 / 11–17345 / 20–18246 / 21–17145 / 32–16646 / 27–20557 / 34–24995 / 28–27091 / 23–17884 / 18–120
DLI34 / 29–3937 / 33–4241 / 36–4341 / 35–4540 / 32–4441 / 32–4441 / 33–4440 / 34–4339 / 32–4035 / 32–4032 / 30–3932 / 27–38
RH %63 / 57–6863 / 57–6663 / 57–6665 / 58–6966 / 59–6865 / 57–6765 / 57–6765 / 56–6765 / 58–6765 / 58–6764 / 60–6664 / 59–67

Each figure is the median across the 59 grid cells holding the 110 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 1489:1736 (15.525, -93.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.7 °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 59 distinct grid cells holding the 110 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1489:1736 (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 15.50_-93.125, lapse-corrected -216 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru· introduced: Canary Is., Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Eritrea, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Ascension, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Iran, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Jawa, Philippines, New Guinea, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Gilbert Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker11.424, -73.067 · in the densest population, 54 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 111 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 11 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2783 km away. 357 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 111 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Prosopis julifloraProsopis julifloraProsopis julifloraProsopis julifloraProsopis julifloraProsopis julifloraProsopis julifloraProsopis juliflora

Photographs: Raja Sekhar Chimirala, BY via GBIF · CC BY; haemanthus, BY via GBIF · CC BY; Thomas Irvine, BY via GBIF · CC BY (3); Kathy Daniel, CC0 via GBIF (3).

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 juliflora, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Characterization of a novel natural cellulosic fiber from Prosopis juliflora bark
S. S. Saravanakumar, A. Kumaravel, T. Nagarajan, P. Sudhakar (2012) · Carbohydrate Polymers
The Prosopis juliflora - Prosopis pallida complex: a monograph
Nick Pasiecznik, Péter Felker, P.J.C. Harris, L. N. Harsh (2001)
An overview of invasive plants in Brazil
Rafael Dudeque Zenni, Sílvia Renate Ziller (2011) · Revista Brasileira de Botânica
Characterization of tropical tree rhizobia and description of Mesorhizobium plurifarium sp. nov.
Philippe de Lajudie, Anne Willems, Giselle Nick, Fátima Maria de Souza Moreira (1998) · International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology
Spectroscopic verification of zinc absorption and distribution in the desert plant Prosopis juliflora-velutina (velvet mesquite) treated with ZnO nanoparticles
José Á. Hernández-Viezcas, Hiram Castillo‐Michel, Alia D. Servin, José R. Peralta-Videa (2010) · Chemical Engineering Journal
Implications of land use/land cover dynamics and Prosopis invasion on ecosystem service values in Afar Region, Ethiopia
Hailu Shiferaw, Woldeamlak Bewket, Tena Alamirew, Gete Zeleke (2019) · The Science of The Total Environment
Some biological characteristics that foster the invasion of Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) DC. at Middle Awash Rift Valley Area, north-eastern Ethiopia
Hailu Shiferaw, Demel Teketay, Sileshi Nemomissa, Fassil Assefa (2003) · Journal of Arid Environments
Antioxidant activity of polyphenolic extract of monofloral honeybee-collected pollen from mesquite (Prosopis juliflora, Leguminosae)
Norma Almaráz-Abarca, María G. Campos, José Antonio Ávila-Reyes, Nestor Naranjo-Jiménez (2006) · Journal of Food Composition and Analysis

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 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 44 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.