Prosopis tamarugo

Tamarugo

Leguminous tree native to Chile. Average height 15 m; trunk diameter 50-80 cm and crown diameter 15-20 m. Young branches are slender and angular with broad based thorns, 3 cm in width. The bipinnate compound leaves are short, glabrous and deciduous with 15 pairs of 5 mm folioles. Inflorescence as a spike; five fused sepals; five pubescent yellow petals with long fuzzy parts on inner face. The fruit is a thick, short, peanut-shaped legume, 25 mm long. The seeds are tiny, dark, compressed and separated by partitions. 

Remarkably drought resistant. Less thorny, semiprostrate ecotypes have been planted on a large scale in Norte Grande, Chile, one of the most arid and agriculturally barren regions of the world. 

All parts of the green tamarugo crown bear fruit equally. The fruit begin to fall in late February, continuing up to mid-April. Part of the leaves fall in July and August. An estimated 50% in weight of the fodder produced is fruit and the remaining 50 leaf litter. There is an estimated yield of 1 kg DM per m of crown projection. 

It is a good browse for sheep and goats, but it should not be grazed until it is five years old. The carrying capacity is estimated as one ewe per hectare in the sixth year and ten ewes per hectare after twenty-five years. Another estimate puts the average carrying capacity of tamarugo at 3.5 sheep per hectare overall. 

Tamarugo fruit is a good feed for sheep and possibly cattle. The dry-matter digestibility of leaves and seeds is only 50% or less, but still sufficient to satisfy maintenance requirements when sheep have free access to it. Animals feeding on tamarugo require supplementary rations of cobalt, iron, magnesium and vitamin A. 

Sheep feeding trials in which the animals consumed 2 kg of a 40/60 fruit/leaf mixture produced only 56% of the LWG achieved by lambs grazing ad lib. with their mothers in the tamarugo forest, suggesting the sheep fed on a different mixture and ate more than in the trial under natural conditions (ref: 565). 

One striking characteristic of the analysis is the high ash content in most parts of tamarugo, especially the dry and green leaves. Relatively small differences are observed between whole fruit and fruit without seeds. 

[NEW ENTRY] 

As % of dry matter

DM

CP

CF

Ash

EE

NFE

Ca

P

Ref

Whole fruit, Chile

94.4

13.3

34.2

6.4

1.4

44.8

565

Fruit without 

seed, Chile

87.3

13.3

31.7

9.3

1.0

44.8

"

Seed, Chile

90.8

27.3

10.8

6.1

5.3

50.5

"

Dry leaves, 

without rachis

91.7

13.6

9.9

22.2

1.7

52.6

"

Dry leaves

91.4

9.0

22.3

11.5

1.7

52.6 

"

Rachis of dry 

leaves

88.2

11.3

16.0

20.3

1.8

50.7

"

Green leaves

43.7

35.7

3.0

28.4

3.0

1.4

"

Dry leaves 

with rachis

90.5

11.0

11.8

24.3

1.1

50.7

"

Fruit

96.7

11.5

32.5

4.4

1.7

49.9

"

Digestibility (%)

Animal

CP

CF

EE

NFE

ME

Ref

Leaves

Sheep

12.7

25.2

47.4

38.0

565

Fruit

Sheep

54.5

51.6

50.0

74.1

"

References

564, 565

Abstracts