What is a Mesquite when it is located a long way from its home in the Chihuahuan Desert? Imagine it has traveled (perhaps as a seed) some 8,000 miles and, after much searching, found itself a new home in the bush in Australia. Well, on a recent trip to Donald, Australia, where UTEP's College of Engineering professor Peter Golding was born, he was amused to read in the local paper that a 30-year old mesquite tree had been discovered growing in the Mt. Jeffcott area and that the Agricultural Department was busy taking great pains to destroy the "noxious weed!" In our natural world, a plant in the right place is a joy and belongs. In the wrong place it is considered a danger to be eradicated.
You can, of course, visit the Chihuahuan Desert Gardens at the
Centennial Museum on the UTEP campus to see our native mesquite trees.
Listen to the Audio (mp3 format) as recorded by KTEP, Public Radio for the Southwest.
Contributor: Peter Golding, Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Bean pods of the Honey Mesquite and overview of the plant.