You might better know it by the name ¨Mesquite¨ 
the general common name given to basically any leguminous pod grown from any of the prosopis varieties which grow all along the Americas. With an important presence in Southern United States, Mexico, Peru and Argentina.
Much is being done to propose the use of this generally considered ¨weed¨ given that it competes for moisture and water with range grasses for cattle and other herds. It has shown an extreme resiliency to counter actions against it´s complete removal from certain regions. Primarily due to it´s long taproots which tend to extract water from deep water tables, while being able also to extract from top level water sources and it´s efficiency to switch between mechanisms of drawing water makes it extremely resistant to harsh desert conditions which it lives under. The tree also can regenerate from a small piece of root left in the soil, making it´s complete removal quite dificult.
The importance of this food tree as a source of nutrition as been widely recogniced among desert dweling Native American groups such as the Pima, Tohono O´odham, Zuni, Raramuri, Mayo, Seri etc. Further more the actual name by which we recognice this food, is a derivative of the original name given by the Aztecs ¨mizquitl¨ etymology of which I have still to find. Yet understood by antropologists, to be offered possibly as a form of tax payment, maybe less so as a form of trade or offering by the northern nations living along the arid regions. Presently communities living in the southern united states have started a revival of the consumption of the species prosopis glandulosa better known as honey mesquite. Prosopis pubescens (screwbean), prosopis velutina (Velvet) prosopis juliflora
Wood, dye, medicine and other functions where given to the whole tree. It has recenetly been used as a source of delicious mesquite honey. The most important thing to note here is the difference it exists in the market, when hearing the word mesquite. Not all mesquite a made equal and not all mesquite are actually mesquite. The common most popular ¨mesquite¨ in the market is actual prosopis nigra, alba and pallida. All of which come from South America the first two primarily out of Argentina and the later from Peru. These where batized by the name ¨algarrobo¨, algarroba being the name for the actual fruit or pod which grew from the tree. Sharing most of the same characteristics; desert to arid condition growing, leguminous, nitrogen fixer, source of food for native fauna and human colonies. The name algarrobo came from the similarity of the fruit to the better known European Carob, what does all this mean. I would like to shed some light on the facts, algarrobo though extremely similar is not mesquite.
Mezquitl in it self taste different given the ecological conditions though desert to desert like similar to the south american conditions has in it self a diference in it´s nutritional constitution. The fact that one group finds it self enclosed in a circumference surrounding northern mexico to Utah in the United States, thousands of miles away from the Algarrobo varieties found in Peru, Chile and Argentina and the shallow to almost non existant prosopis varieties in Central America (Proposis Juliflora is found in central America but only due to recent introduction, please follow the link to validate this claim, it´s in spanish Juliflora) leads us to believe that a common ancestor might be shared among the genus, still it´s propagation and adaptation to different environments though arid, different never the less creates a slight to severe difference in the fruit of the tree it self. Much like the Cacao (theobroma cacao L.) tree which has it made it´s way across the tropical Americas it´s morphology, bioquemistry, organoleptic proterties changes thus we can acknowledge the same for the prosopis varieties. Evident in the shape (leaf, pod), taste, morphology (whole tree), taste, of the different varieties. 
In short, the ideas is not to make out of South American Algarrobo varieties martyrs or indicate that they are inferior to the North American varieties. Rather a clarification on the nomenclature being comercialized in the organic, whole food, functional food industries.
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