I found, on the same shelf, two blocks of wood, both labelled Mesquite. Where it gets weird is that one is as dark as Black Walnut and the other looks like Butternut.
Both Mesquite?
So, I had to ask, what’s up with that?
The trees and woods most commonly called Mesquite are from the Prosopis genus. Within that genus are seven common species.
One is from Africa – African Mesquite (P. africana)
Two from the Chaco region of South America – Black Mesquite (P. nigra) and Itin (P. kuntzei)
Two from a range including the Chaco but also beyond it into Uruguay – P. affinis and P. alba
One that ranges from Mexico to South America and into the Caribbean – P. juliflora
One from the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico- P. glandulosa
Could these two very different woods both be Mesquite? Well it isn’t unknown for genus mates to look quite different such as Persimmon that is mostly whitish and Ebony that is coal black; both are members of the Diospyros genus.
The yellowish blank could be P. affinis, P. alba, P. juliflora, or P. glandulosa based on appearance. I concluded it was most likely P. glandulosa since that was most easily sourced and most commonly available.
The dark blank could have been P. africana, P. nigra, or P. kuntzei. I concluded that P. nigra was most likely since P. africana is rarely, if ever, exported to the United States and I would imagine that P. kuntzei would be marketed as Itin if it was that wood.
Of course these are just slightly educated guesses and I could be wrong, but for now those are the identifications I am going with and I will proceed to discuss each chosen species separately. Sometimes what a sales label tells us is only half, or less, of the story, but if you enjoy some detective work there is much to learn about most any turning blank in your collection.