The Difference Between Mesquite and Palo Verde Tree Blossoms

Hi everyone! Today’s post is going to be an odd one for this blog. Instead of talking about any of my hobbies that I liked to enjoy talking about online, I decided to write a short post about the differences between Mesquite and Palo Verde tree blossoms.

I live in Arizona for a very long time and, despite this and the fact I took botany and agriculture classes focused on desert plants, some of the information I learned fell out of my head. One of the more embarrassing things I forgot is the difference between Mesquite and Palo Verde blossoms. The major driving force for why this happened is due to the fact that I was constantly surrounded by people outside of the classes and after I finished taking the classes that confused the two. It didn’t help that it seemed like everyone I knew in Arizona got the two tree’s blossoms confused. The embarrassing part about it is that I think I mistook each tree’s blossoms for each others while posting photographs of them online!

So, in order to fix this, and hopefully help anyone who doesn’t know what the difference is between the two blossoms and trees are, then I hope this post will help. I’m not a professional botanist of desert plants. Just someone who runs a blog for fun (And hopefully some money) who wants to get facts straight and true online.

The easiest way for me to show the differences between the two trees and their blossoms are to show photographs of the blossoms.

Here is what the Mesquite tree blossoms look like…

And here is what the Palo Verde tree blossoms look like…

Mesquite trees are native to the United States, specifically Southern United States, and a part of the legume plant family. Legume plants product fruit that can be eaten or dried to create food. Best known legumes are beans, soy beans, and peanuts. In addition this, the Mesquite trees also have wood that can be use for lumber and are used for smoking foods, specifically barbecue. There are three main types of Mesquite trees, but I don’t remember the kind I photographed.

There are different species of the Palo Verde tree. There is the Blue Palo Verde and Yellow Palo Verde. Both species of Palo Verde trees are native to the Southwestern deserts of the Southwestern United States as well as Northwestern Mexico. The Blue Palo Verde tree is the official state tree of Arizona. I don’t remember which type of Palo Verde tree I photographed, but I think it was the Blue Palo Verde.

So, why do people get the two confused?

To be honest, I have no idea. I wish I could say some theories, but I don’t have any.

I hope this clears up everything, but if you want to learn more about the trees, please read these articles about Mesquite trees and this article about Palo Verde trees.

Well, that’s all for now! Thank you for reading!