Carob

What does Carob look like?

Carob grows as a sturdy evergreen tree reaching heights around fifteen metres. Its dense crown forms a broad dome resting on a thick trunk with rough brown bark. The dark green leaves are divided into several pairs of oval leaflets. In autumn, the tree produces clusters of tiny blossoms arranged along slender spikes. These flower clusters often emerge directly from mature branches or the central trunk itself. Most trees bear either only male or only female flowers, though some have both. The male blossoms give off a pungent scent caused by organic compounds called amines. Pollen moves between trees on the wind and via insect visitors. After pollination, female flowers slowly form long, leathery pods that take a year to mature.

Where does Carob come from?

Wild carob trees belong to the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East, where they still grow naturally in eastern coastal areas. Over centuries, farmers spread the species westward across southern Europe and northern Africa. The modern English name carob traces back through Old French to the Arabic word kharrub. Its botanical title Ceratonia siliqua comes from the ancient Greek word for horn, referring to the curved shape of the pods, combined with the Latin term for a legume shell. Ancient merchants used the uniform seeds as counterweights for balancing scales, which gave rise to the carat measure still used today for precious stones and gold purity.

When and how Carob blooms

Carob trees thrive in warm, sunny climates with mild winters, tolerating coastal breezes, salty soils, and long dry spells. They can withstand light frost down to roughly minus seven degrees Celsius. Growers generally raise new plants from seeds in spring nurseries or propagate chosen varieties by grafting. Young trees establish deep root systems that seek out moisture in well-drained sandy loam. Flowering begins in autumn, right as the previous year's ripened crop is gathered. Because blossoms appear on older wood at harvest time, workers carefully knock pods down onto ground nets to protect the fresh blooms.

How Carob is used

People cultivate carob both for garden shade and for its nutritious pods. The sugary pulp inside dried pods is ground into a dark flour or melted into rich syrups. Because of its sweet flavor and brown color, roasted carob powder serves widely as a caffeine-free cocoa alternative in cakes and treats. The hard seeds yield locust bean gum, a natural thickening substance used across the food industry. Crushed pod pieces also provide feed for livestock, while the broad, drought-hardy canopy makes the tree a popular landscape choice in arid areas.

Kinds of Carob

Botanists distinguish cultivated carob varieties from their wild counterparts by their larger pods, thicker pulp, and higher natural sugar levels. Around fifty regional cultivars exist throughout Mediterranean orchards. Although South American trees like the mesquite or saman are also called algarrobo in Spanish, they belong to different branches of the legume family and were simply named by settlers for their similar sweet pods.

What Carob means

Carob holds a long place in Mediterranean religious traditions. In Malta, people prepare a spiced carob sweet called karamelli tal-harrub to eat during Lent and Good Friday. Jewish families traditionally share dried carob pods during the festival of Tu Bishvat to celebrate the new year of trees. In folklore, the plant is sometimes called St. John's bread after the biblical account of John the Baptist surviving on wild locust pods in the wilderness.

Where Carob is used and seen

Ajloun Forest ReserveA woodland nature reserve in northern Jordan with rare plants and wildlife

Days and festivals

Questions people ask about Carob

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• USDA Plants DatabaseUS Department of Agriculture, Article
• Plants of the World OnlineRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Plant database
• Where it has been recordedGBIF, Plant database
• Sightings and photos by naturalistsiNaturalist, Plant database

• Carob on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos
• Wikidata recordOpen data