Title: Blue Planet Biomes - Velvet Mesquite
Headings: Velvet Mesquite
Velvet Mesquite
Content: It can be found growing in the Chihuahua, Sonoran ,   and Mojave deserts. The only desert it doesn't occur in is the Great   Basin Desert because the temperatures are too   cold. There are three   common species of mesquite; the honey mesquite (Prosopis   glandulosa), screwbean mesquite (Prosopis pubescens), and   velvet mesquite. The velvet mesquite is the largest of the   mesquite species. It is a low-branched, broad spreading   thorny shrub or small tree with a well-developed crown. It   can grow as a single-trunked tree about 30 feet tall, and   just as wide, with a two feet diameter trunk. When young   growth is damaged by frost, fire, or browsing, it will   sprout multiple trunks from dormant buds on its stem under   the ground and form a shrub. The bark of velvet   mesquite is reddish-brown and smooth when young. On older   trees the bark becomes gray-brown, rough, thick, and   shredded into long, narrow strips.