Texas Mescalbean

Taxobox
name = Texas Mescalbean

---

image_width = 240px
image_caption = "Calia secundiflora" flowers and leaves
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
ordo = Fabales
familia = Fabaceae
subfamilia = Faboideae
tribus = Sophoreae
genus = "Calia"
species = "C. secundiflora"
binomial = "Calia secundiflora"
binomial_authority = (Ortega) Yakovlev
synonyms ="Sophora secundiflora"

Texas Mescalbean ("Calia secundiflora", formerly "Sophora secundiflora"), also known as the Frijolito or, confusingly, as Texas Mountain Laurel, is a slow-growing, common shrub or small tree native to the southwestern United States (Texas, New Mexico) and Mexico (Chihuahua and Coahuila south to Hidalgo, Puebla and Queretaro), well-adapted to its arid to semiarid environment.

An evergreen, its leaves are pinnately-compound, with small, roughly spatulate leaflets; the leaflets are rather thick, and waxy to the touch. [http://ag.arizona.edu/pima/gardening/aridplants/Sophora_secundiflora.html] Never tall, and rarely having a straight trunk, its bark is smooth in all but the oldest specimens. [http://ag.arizona.edu/pima/gardening/aridplants/Sophora_secundiflora.html]

Uses

A popular ornamental plant, it is well known for its highly fragrant, purple flowers (the smell is sometimes compared to Kool-Aid) and very hard, bright red seeds. The reddish wood it produces is potentially useful, but as yet has little commercial value.

This is an often-misunderstood plant, frequently confused with the mezcal plant used in tequila manufacture, as well as with mescaline, due to its name of "mescalbean". Further adding to this is the fact that the beans were in fact once used by some native American tribes as a hallucinogen, before being supplanted by peyote. This plant does not contain any mescaline, however; all parts of it are highly poisonous, due to the principle alkaloid cytisine, which is chemically related to nicotine.

References and links

* [http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?430160 Germplasm Resources Information Network: "Calia secundiflora"]
* [http://ag.arizona.edu/pima/gardening/aridplants/Sophora_secundiflora.html University of Arizona information on "S. secundiflora" (Accessed 2/26/06)]
* [http://www.erowid.org/plants/mescal/mescal.shtml Erowid mescal vault (Accessed 2/26/06)]
* [http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/mbierner/bio406d/images/pics/fab/sophora_secundiflora.htm "S. secundiflora" images]
* [http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SOSE3 NRCS: USDA Plants Profile "Calia secundiflora"]