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11: Auxiliary plants

Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce

LEGUMINOSAE - MIMOSOIDEAE

Prosopis spicigera L.

Occurring naturally from Saudi Arabia to India, cultivated in many semi-arid tropical countries. In South-East Asia it is grown in Java.

Prosopis cineraria is grown for fuelwood for cooking and heating and provides excellent charcoal with an energy value of about 25 000 kJ/kg. Farmers in northern India often plant annual crops beneath it to make use of the higher soil fertility and to protect the crop against extreme weather conditions. It is used to reforest denuded areas such as sand dunes.

Shrub or small tree with an open crown, up to 6.5 m tall with scattered internodal prickles, but without stipular thorns. Leaves bipinnate with 1—3 pairs of pinnae; leaflets 7—14 pairs, 4—15 mm x 2—4.5 mm. Inflorescence a raceme, 5—10 cm long, often combined into paniculate aggregates; petals yellow. Pod slender, elongated, subcylindrical, 8—19 cm x 4—7 mm, constricted between the seeds. Seed ovoid, about 6 mm long. Prosopis cineraria grows in regions with 75—850 mm annual rainfall and a long dry season. It withstands high temperatures (up to 50°C) and light frost (up to —6°C) and tolerates alkaline and slightly saline soils. It may become a noxious weed in more humid areas.

[8]Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr., R.C., 1963–1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. 647, 641, 761 pp.
[51]Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950–. Series 1. Volume 1, 4–. Kluwer, Dordrecht & Flora Malesiana Foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands.
[70]Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, the Hague, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 261, 1450 pp.
[116]National Academy of Sciences, 1980, 1983. Firewood crops: Shrub and tree species for energy production. 2 volumes. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., United States. 237, 92 pp.
[140]Sardar, M.R., 1990. Effect of conventional lopping of Prosopis cineraria on soil moisture, soil erosion and herbage production. Pakistan Journal of Forestry 40: 300–306.

M.S.M. Sosef & L.J.G. van der Maesen

Sosef, M.S.M. & van der Maesen, L.J.G., 1997. Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce. In: Faridah Hanum, I & van der Maesen, L.J.G. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 11: Auxiliary plants. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea