Abilene was originally just grassy plains. The scrubby mesquite trees were brought to the area when the cattle, brought from Spain, were driven into Texas from Mexico.
Mesquites have a lacy leaf, long thorns and produces beans . (Some people make jelly from the beans!) It is the hardest hardwood tree and cutting planks requires a special diamond edged saw. They are very slow growing. If you see one with a large trunk, it has been growing for many, many years.
In the spring, these trees are usually are the last trees to bloom, seldom getting fooled by that last freeze that nearly always gets the blooming fruit and redbud trees.
Mesquite wood is used for heating, cooking and fine custom-made furniture. Meats smoked with mesquite, have a taste that we, in West Texas, think is much better than the hickory smoked foods!
The dark green ‘balls’ you see in many mesquite as well as in other trees is mistletoe, which is a parasite.
