Cercidium microphyllum

What to Eat

Edible parts: Seeds, Pods, Flowers

Seeds, pods, and flowers are edible. The dried seeds were traditionally roasted, often until almost burnt, then ground into a powder and made into a mush or cakes. They are generally viewed as a famine food, used when better options were unavailable. The seeds are rich in protein, containing around 22% protein, 50% carbohydrate, and 18% fat. Dried powdered seed has a digestibility rating of 76%, rising to 85% when cooked, which is higher than many commonly eaten legumes. The seeds contain antinutritional factors including trypsin inhibitors, phenols, alkaloids, and haemagglutinin, but not at concentrations high enough to pose a major nutritional problem; these factors are soluble in saline solutions and can be removed by soaking or cooking. Seedpods are 35–110mm long and 7–9mm wide, containing 1–4 brown, sub-globose seeds 8–10mm long and 5–7mm wide. Immature pods are moist, green, and fibrous with a pea-like flavor, though less fleshy than those of blue paloverde; the constricted form around the seeds limits edible material, and the pod tips may be sharp. Cooking improves flavor but does not fully eliminate stringiness. Mature beans, once soaked and boiled, soften and resemble ordinary white beans in flavor, though they may develop a slimy texture; changing the cooking water helps reduce this. Careful sorting is needed as insect damage is common.

Where to Find It

It is a subtropical plant. It grows in the Sonoran Desert.

Mexico*, North America, USA,

How to Identify

A tree. It is upright and branches often. It grows about 5 m tall. The leaves are yellowish-green. Leaves can be shed in hot dry periods. The bark is green and can use sunlight for photosynthesis. The flowers are at the end of the branches. The fruit are soft pods 4-8 cm long. They are depressed between the seeds.

How to Grow

Plants can be grown from seeds. Seedlings need water for the first 2-3 months.

Propagation: Sow seed after acid scarification in 95% sulfuric acid for 30 minutes to 1 hour, followed by a 15-minute rinse in cool to tepid water. Sow immediately after treatment.

Medicinal Uses

None known.

Other Uses

The wood is hard and heavy. The Seri people of northwestern Mexico, who call the tree ziipxöl, strung the seeds into necklaces. Suitable for use as a small multi-branched tree or large background shrub in xeric and native desert gardens.

A deciduous tree growing to 4 m tall and 6 m wide at a slow rate. Hardy to UK zone 9. Tolerates light sandy, medium loamy, and heavy clay soils, preferring well-drained conditions and nutritionally poor soil. Suitable for mildly acid to basic pH. Requires full sun and tolerates both dry and moist conditions with good drought tolerance.

Production

It is slow growing. Trees can live for several hundred years.

Notes

Also as Caesalpinaceae.

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