Cercidium microphyllum. "Palo verde" means "green trunk". The trunk contains chlorophyll, and makes food when the tree has no leaves. After the wildflowers finish blooming, the trees and the cactus do! This is the perfect design to keep the bees in business. As you can see, these trees are covered with tiny yellow flowers. This species has flowers with several yellow petals and a white petal. The longleaf palo verde flower has several yellow petals and a deep orange petal. The beans, while still green, are edible. They taste like peas, but they're sweeter and firmer. It takes a lot of effort to peel off enough husks for a decent handful, though. Once they ripen, they will be brown and hard. They are so hard they will not sprout unless a bird first swallows them, and they get scraped in the gizzard, after which, the bird discards them in the usual manner, and they will grow.