The Tree

Types of Mesquite in Texas

Honey, velvet, and screwbean mesquite, and how to tell them apart.

Reviewed July 2026

Ask most Texans about the types of mesquite in Texas and you get one answer: mesquite. But the state actually holds a few distinct kinds, and telling them apart comes down to leaves, pods, and where you are standing.

Honey mesquite

Honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) is the mesquite of Texas. It is the most common and most widely spread woody "pest" plant in the state, and an estimated 25 percent of Texas grasslands support it. This is the tree behind nearly every mesquite story: the feathery bright-green leaves, the two-inch thorns, the flat yellowish bean pods, the nitrogen-fixing roots. It splits into two varieties, an eastern form (var. glandulosa) across most of the state and a western form (var. torreyana) toward the Trans-Pecos.

Velvet mesquite

Velvet mesquite (Prosopis velutina, now also placed as Neltuma velutina) is a western and southwestern species, more at home in Arizona but reaching far West Texas. Its name comes from fine, soft hairs that give the leaves and young twigs a velvety, grayish-green cast. It is the other mesquite that scientists flag as a major range invader alongside honey mesquite, but in Texas it is far less widespread.

Screwbean mesquite

Screwbean mesquite (Prosopis pubescens, also called tornillo) is the easy one to identify, because you just read the pod. Instead of a flat straight bean, it produces a tightly coiled, corkscrew-shaped pod that earns the name "tornillo," Spanish for screw. It is a smaller desert tree of the Trans-Pecos, favoring washes, arroyos, and moist bottoms in far West Texas.

How to tell them apart in the field

Start with the pod, because it is the clearest tell. A tight spiral means screwbean. A flat, straight, slightly pinched bean means honey or velvet. To split those two, look at the leaves: honey mesquite leaves are smooth and bright green, while velvet mesquite leaves carry that soft, hairy, gray-green fuzz. Range helps too: across Central, South, and North Texas you are almost always looking at honey mesquite; velvet and screwbean belong to the far western deserts.

All of them are legumes, all fix nitrogen, all carry thorns, and all produce edible pods. The differences are real but modest, which is why "mesquite" works fine as an everyday name, right up until you are standing under a corkscrew-podded tornillo and need a better one.

The Texas Mesquite Association is an independent educational resource. It is not a government agency, and not an official trade, membership, or certifying body. Always confirm identification, food, and land-management details with a qualified local expert or your county Extension office before acting.