Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) and redberry juniper (Juniperus pinchotii) are two woody species which dominate uncultivated lands in the south central Great Plains, USA (Texas, Oklahoma) and may have potential for bioenergy utilization. In this study, these two biomasses were gasified in an adiabatic, updraft fixed-bed gasifier using air as medium. The products include low heating value gas and liquid tar yield. The effects of fuel moisture content and the equivalence ratio (ER) on liquid yields including heavy tar and light tar and higher heating value (HHV) of the producer gas were investigated. It was found that updraft gasifiers produce a large amount of tar, in a range of 100g/Nm(3) of gas produced. As the equivalence ratio (ER) increased (i.e. more rich char conditions), peak temperature (T-peak) within the bed decreased due to the lesser partial oxidization. The liquid yield showed peak value with change in moisture content between 6 and 24%. Heavy tar is a very high quality fuel with a higher heating value of over 29MJ/kg on a dry, ash-free (DAF) basis which is a slightly higher than that of ethanol. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.