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Fabaceae FAMILY

Olneya tesota

Olneya tesota

Edibility
3/5
Medicinal
0/5

Safety & Hazards

Sawdust from this wood is reported to irritate the eyes and nose[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitEvergreen Tree
Growth—

Olneya tesota is a plant of drier to arid regions in southwestern N. America, growing in areas where summers can be very hot, up to 45°c, but winters are mild and frosts are few and not very heavy. Trees can sustain considerable damage at around -6°c[2]. It is found wild in areas where the mean annual rainfall is around 75 - 400mm[2]. Requires a sunny position in a well-drained soil[2]. Prefers a pH in the range 7 - 8.5[2]. Trees are of a moderate rate of growth, and can be quite fast growing if irrigated - there are reports of new shoots 150cm long[3]. A fairly long-lived species, with specimens up to 200 years old reported[2]. Trees are often cut back severely by grazing animals but usually resprout freely. Trees protected from grazing can be trimmed and coppiced, though very old wood will often fail to resprout[2, 3]. Flowering is usually prolific every 2 - 5 years[2]. This is a rather variable species, especially with regard to the seeds and seedpods. Although only one bean in a pod is the rule on some trees, it usually is possible to find some pods with at least two or three beans. Many trees have pods with several seeds, and some are distinctly large-podded, to the extent of being nearly 13cm long and 10 - 12mm wide in the dry state. The largest pods seen had nine fully developed beans and two abortive, indicating that pods with eleven beans or more are sometimes produced[3]. Some trees have relatively indehiscent pods that fall to the ground without shattering, while on other trees most of the pods open before falling, so that the individual beans have to be picked up, which takes much more time and labour[3]. One tree found on a field trip had pods up to 13cm long and 12mm wide, with seeds up to 11mm long, 9mm wide and 8mm thick[3]. Reports on the tree's ability to support nitrogen-producing bacteria on its roots are mixed. Trees growing wild in an Arizonan desert did not have root nodules, whilst trees grown from seed in Africa did have nodules[4].

Propagation

Seed - it has a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing in order to speed up and improve germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing. The optimum temperature for germination appears to be 25 - 30. Fresh seeds often have 80 - 90% germination rate with emergence usually occurring in 4 - 12 days. Young seedlings quickly form a taproot and become very difficult to transplant. It is best, where possible, to sow the seed in situ, and protect carefully from predators such as mice and rabbits. If sown in containers, then the seedlings should be transplanted to individual, deep containers as soon as they are large enough to handle, and be planted out into their permanent positions as soon as there is any sign of the taproot reaching the bottom of the container[PFAF]. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Olneya+tesota>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]Tropical Timbers of the World. Ag. Handbook No. 607. — Chudnoff. Martin. · USDA Forest Service. Wisconsin. · 1984 ↩︎Terse details on the properties of the wood of almost 400 species of trees from the Tropics.
  2. [2]World Agroforesty Centre — http://www.worldagroforestry.org/ ↩︎An excellent online database of a huge range of trees giving very good information on each plant - its uses, ecology, identity, propagation, pests etc.
  3. [3]Olneya Beans. A Native Food Product of the Arizona Desert, Worthy of Domestication — Cook O.F. · 1919 ↩︎A detailed study of Olneya tesota and its possibility as a cultivated food crop
  4. [4]The Leguminosae; A Source Book of Characteristics, Uses and Nodulation — Allen O.N.; Allen E.K. · University of Wisconsin · 1981 · ISBN 0-333-32221-5 ↩︎An amazing and comprehensive work, giving a brief guide to the many genera of the family Fabaceae and also the principle uses of the genus.
  5. [5]A California Flora. — Munz P.A. & Keck D.D. · University of California Press; Los Angeles · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent flora but no pictures. Not for the casual reader.
  6. [6]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  7. [7]A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. — Usher. G. · Constable · 1974 · ISBN 0094579202 ↩︎Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.
  8. [8]Tanaka's Cyclopedia of Edible Plants of the World. — Tanaka. T. & Nakao S. · Keigaku Publishing; Tokyo · 1976 · ISBN - ↩︎The most comprehensive list of edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.
  9. [9]Food Plants of the N. American Indians. — Yanovsky. E. · U.S. Depf of Agriculture. · ISBN - ↩︎A comprehensive but very terse guide. Not for the casual reader.
  10. [10]Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. — Hedrick. U. P. · Dover Publications · 1972 · ISBN 0-486-20459-6 ↩︎Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.
  11. [11]Native American Ethnobotany — Moerman. D. · Timber Press. Oregon. · 1998 · ISBN 0-88192-453-9 ↩︎Very comprehensive but terse guide to the native uses of plants. Excellent bibliography, fully referenced to each plant, giving a pathway to further information. Not for the casual reader.
  12. [12]Protein Quality and Antinutritional Factors of Wild Legume Seeds from the Sonoran Desert — Vázquez-Moreno L. & Robles-Burgueňo M.R. · 1996 ↩︎
  13. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎