IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 87 
its Spanish-Mexican equivalents, are, of course, very indefinite 
names, being applied indiscriminately to a host of hardwood species. 
Tt is a small, spiny-branched tree or large shrub ranging in desert 
valleys, arroyos, and the like from Arizona to southern California, 
Lower California, and Sonora. The fragrant lavender or purplish 
flowers usually appear in May, but sometimes are found as late as 
July, and are much sought after by bees. The pods usually ripen 
in August and contain from one to eight seeds. These seeds, when 
roasted, are edible, having a very agreeable, peanutlike flavor, and 
are prized by Indians for pinole. Cook (2/7) has suggested the 
domestication of the species as a food plant in warm arid regions, 
and quotes Lumholtz to the effect that cattle may be responsible for 
the extreme scarcity of Olneya reproduction in Mexico, both the 
young plants and the seeds being eaten by them. 
Some difference of opinion exists as to the palatability of the 
mesquitelike leaves of tesota to livestock, but there is no doubt that 
cattle will eat them readily at certain times of the year, as, for 
example, when the leaves first unfold after the early spring rains. 
The tree has been introduced into Hawaii, where Judd (7/) reports 
that animals feed on the nutritious foliage and flowers and grow 
fat on them. In the dry regions which the species occupies, it is 
prized by travelers for its shade, its edible seeds, and for the fuel 
which its remarkably heavy wood affords. 
_ New Mexican locust (fobinia neomexicana) varies in size from a 
thorny bush 31% or 4 feet high to a small tree 20 to 25 feet tall and 
ranges from western Texas to southern Colorado, southern Nevada, 
and south into the mountains of northern Sonora. It occurs 
sparsely on dry hilis but is essentially a species of cool mountain 
canyons or along streams, often in yellow pine timber and on north 
slopes, its altitudinal distribution varying from about 4,000 to 
9,000 feet. The large, showy flowers appear from April to August 
and the thin fiat pods are usually fully formed by the middle of 
September. 
Save only for the little known, recently described PR. rusbyi, a 
species confined to southern New Mexico, 2. neomeaicana is the only 
species of the genus occurring naturally in the Western States. Chap- 
line (75) lists it as an important browse species of very high palata- 
bility for goats in the Southwest. Cattle seem to relish the flowers 
and, apparently, without harmful effect. It is often observed to be 
cropped by horses and cattle and is considered fairly good for those 
classes of livestock. Mule deer graze it closely on the overgrazed 
Kaibab range. Since the eastern black locust (2. pseudoacacia), 
often called common locust, is known to be poisonous, it would 
perhaps be safer to regard the western species with suspicion except 
on goat range. 
Mescalbean (Sophora secundifiora, syn. Broussonetia secundiflora) 
(fig. 22) is a handsome evergreen shrub or small tree, 8 to 35 feet 
high and with a maximum diameter of 6 to 8 inches; it has thick 
and ieathery, dark glossy green leaves. A very common name for 
the species is coralbean, but this is considered more appropriate for 
the related genus Erythrina. Other common names for this plant 
include colorin, evergreen coralbean, frijolillo, frijolito (737), and 
mountain-laurel. 
