Disjunction of Prosopis reptans and the origin of the North American populations

Several populations of Prosopis reptans collected along the Texas Gulf coast were examined for their flavonoids and leaf morphology. Seventeen flavonoids were detected and the nine major ones were isolated and identified: apigenin 6- and $\text{8-C-}\text{glucoside}$, luteolin and its $\text{7-O-}\text{glucoside}$, quercetin and its $\text{3-O-}\text{glucoside}$, and myricetin, its $\text{3-O-}\text{rhamnoside}$ and $\text{3-O-}\text{glucoside}$. The presence of a single chemical race was established, since all specimens from the Texas Gulf coast populations were uniform in their chemistry and leaf morphology, and chemically identical to the plant material from Argentina. However, the Argentina material exhibited slight morphological differences in that the leaves possessed less pubescence than the Texas Gulf coast plants.