Edible: Fruit

Description: Shrub or small tree, 4m tall (dioecious)

Native to: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and northern Mexico.

Drought & frost tolerant

Use: Fruit can be eaten raw, used in the fillings of pastries, or fermented into wine. 

Ecology: Morus species act as a larval host of Nymphalis antiopa “Mourning Cloak” butterflies. Birds and mammals love the fruits.

Toxicity: The leaf sap and unripe fruit are toxic.

Edible: Fruit

Description: Evergreen groundcover growing to 15–30 centimetre

Native to:  The west coast of North America and down into South America 

Use: Fruit is edible

Ecology: 68 species of caterpillars use it was a host plant, fruits are eaten by black bears, squirrels, possoms, song birds like the American robin, box turtles and wood turtles.  

Edible: Nut

Description: A large deciduous tree, growing to 20–40m tall

Native to: Southwest USA. Found in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio south to Alabama and Mexico, being primarily found in the Mississippi River valley.

Use: Pecan seeds are edible, with a rich, buttery flavor. They can be eaten fresh, roasted or used in cooking,[29] particularly in sweet desserts, such as pecan pie.

Ecology: Pecan trees provide food and habitat for various wildlife, including squirrels, birds, and deer. 

Growing: Two or more trees of different cultivars must be present to pollinate each other

Edible: Fruit pulp

Description: Palm tree 15-20 m

Native to: southwestern U. S. and Baja California

Use: The sweet fruit pulp of the fan palm is edible. The fruit was eaten raw, cooked, or ground into flour for cakes by Native Americans.

Ecology: habitat for the giant palm-boring beetle, western yellow bat, hooded oriole, and many other bird species.

Growing: Semi-resistant to fire

Conservation: Grazing animals often kill young plants through trampling, or by eating the terminus at the apical meristem, the growing portion of the plant. This may have kept palms restricted to a lesser range.

Edible: Fruit

Description: An evergreen shrub or small tree to about 5 m tall (dioecious)

Native to: Southern and central Texas and northern Mexico.

Use: Texas persimmon fruit is edible and used in puddings and custards. The fruit pulp produces an indelible black stain.

Ecology: Wildlife uses Texas persimmon for food, shelter, and cover. Coyotes, raccoon, ringtails, foxes, and other mammals and birds eat the fruit. Spanish goats consume large amounts of Texas persimmon foliage. White-tailed deer browse the foliage lightly. In brushy habitats, Texas persimmon and other woody species form a tall overlapping canopy which produces thermal, hiding, and escape cover for white-tailed deer. 

Growing: The fruits, are borne on female trees.

Edible: Pods

Description: Shrub or small tree 12m tall

Native to: It is native to Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean.

Use: The sweet pods are edible and nutritious, and have been a traditional source of food for indigenous peoples in Peru, Chile, and California. Pods were once chewed during long journeys to stave off thirst. They can be eaten raw, boiled, dried and ground into flour to make bread.

Fodder: The species' uses also include forage.

Growing: Seeds remain viable for up to 10 years. Invasive in other countries.

Edible: Seedpods

Description: Flowering shrub or small tree in the pea family. 7m tall

Native to: Southwestern United States (Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, southern Nevada, and Utah) and northern Mexico (Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sonora)

Use: Screwbean Mesquite has nutritious seedpods that can be eaten. Used as a staple food for centuries by desert dwellers, this high-protein meal contains good quantities of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, and zinc, and is rich in the amino acid lysine as well. Mesquite is high in fiber, moderate in sugar, and 8% protein. It has a sweet, rich, molasses-like flavor with a hint of caramel which blends well into smoothies or other drinks, especially those made with cacao and maca. The fruits may be used as a coffee substitute.

Edible: Fruit

Description: Tree/shrub 15-24m tall

Native to: Eastern North America, Mexico, and Central America.

Use: The fruit is edible raw, or can be made into jelly, the juice can be used as a drink mixer, hence the common name 'rum cherry'.

Ecology: Host plant of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly and Cherry Gall Azure. Fruit is eaten by birds such as bluebirds, robins, catbirds, mockingbirds and blue jays pick trees clean before the cherries fall.

Toxicity: The bark, leaves, and seeds of this species are especially toxic. Leaves are poisonous to livestock.

Invasive in other countries.

Edible: Ripe Fruit

Description: Cactus

Native to: Cochise, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz, Yavapai and Yuma Counties in Arizona.

Use: The edible fruits are deep red to purple in color.

Growing: This is one of the most cold and wet tolerant opuntias for the UK and has edible fruits.

Edible: Fruit

Description: Thicket-forming cactus up to 10 feet tall

Native to: native to Florida and the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America.

Use: the fruits are edible and sweet. It is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental outdoors. It is sometimes planted as a living fence.

Edible: Fruit and leaves

Description: Evergreen perennial growing to 3m tall

Native to: Chihuahua desert of Texas, New Mexico, Western Oklahoma and Eastern Colorado.

Use: The prickles on the skin must be carefully removed before eating the pads. The young pads can be split lengthways then dried and stored for winter use. Fruit - raw, cooked or dried for later use.

Edible: Pads and fruit

Description: Cactus

Native to:  Southwestern regions of North America

Use: Both the pads and fruit are edible though you need to remove the spines first.

Growing: Cold and drought tolerant. Planting in the summer requires shade until the cactus is established (approximately three months). However, it’s often advisable to wait until spring when the soil warms up for planting, especially in regions with cold winters.

Edible: Flowers

Description: Succulent

Native to: Southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico.

Use: For food the basal rosette was harvested just before the Hohokam agave sent up a flower stalk. At this time the concentration of sugars in the rosette is at its highest. The rosettes, weighing about 9 pounds (4.1 kg), were cooked for two or three days in a pit filled with hot stones and covered with hot coals and dirt. The baked rosette, compared in taste to sweet potato (although containing inedible fiber), is nutritious with 347 calories and 3.5 grams of protein per 100 grams.

Edible: Seeds

Description: Conifer tree, Pine species

Native to: Mexico, in the states of: Durango; northern Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Zacatecas; central San Luis Potosí; and southern Querétaro and Hidalgo.

Use: Seeds are edible but produced infrequently. Highly attractive small tree, one of the most beautiful conifers and ideally suited to small gardens in dry areas, but very rare in cultivation.

Conservation: It is an IUCN Red List Near threatened species, endangered by habitat loss.

Edible: Nut

Description: It is a small to medium-size tree, reaching 8–10m tall

Native to: Central Mexico (Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt), in the states of Puebla and Veracruz.

Use: The edible (pine nut) seeds are collected in Mexico to a small extent.

Ecology: the Mexican jay, plucks the seeds out of the open cones. The jay, which uses the seeds as a major food resource, stores many of the seeds for later use, and some of these stored seeds are not used and are able to grow into new trees.

Conservation: Endangered