Fouquieria splendens

The Ocotillo. Pronounced like "oh-ka-tee-oh," is ubiquitous in the Southwest. It's nicknamed Coachwhip, which you can imagine would hurt if you were riding through a grove of these on a stagecoach and got whacked.

It has cool medicinal value. So if you're in the desert and have prostatic hypertrophy, edema, fatigue, frequency, hemorrhoids, pelvic congestion or variscosities, then grind up some of this to get your lymphatic system flowing! A pretty plant when it puts outs leaves.

Feather Acacia for Medicine

This tree, native to the Mexican tropics, is officially called Acacia pennatula of the Fabacea family. These pics are from one on campus here in Tucson. It has cytotoxic preference for human tumor cells. A pretty tree but too jungly for my future backyard.

Arizona Rosewood

One month without blogging a tree. Sad, but busy. Last week I came across the Arizona Rosewood in a little garden. It was tall, a tree. But it most often grows as a shrub. It takes some care to get the young plant to grow but once established, "it can be almost neglected," according to one guidebook.

So, if this would provide a green, consistent hedge or shade tree once established. It is tolerant to intense heat, cold and winds.

It looks like an oleander and has colorful flowers. It is native to northern Mexico and southern Arizona, lending itself to the Tombstone landscape of the old west. B

eing a part of the Rosaceae family, it shares a close genetic make-up to the rose, cherry, almond, apricot, and peach tree.

Take home message: Hardy, green plant

that won't leave you feeling high and dry when the rest of the world is.

Western Catalpa

This guy was the MVP of Utah this month. Anna and I feel like we are in Hawaii when we go back to Holladay after a prolonged stay in Tucson. We get excited to roll down the window and smell the green of the Salt Lake neighborhoods. And we nerdily point out the different plants we like. I'm always looking up at trees. She's always looking down at flowers.

We found one tree that catered to both our tastes. The Western Catalpa is around the Wasatch Front and it stands out in June with its white, bell-shaped flowers. It's tall and stately, with large branches from which hang shoe string pods and heart-shaped, tropical-looking flowers.

The tree supports large amounts of snow, but before doing that changes from yellow to a dull brown in the fall.

It's a litter bug, but seems to be worth it for the month of June when it looks like a tree carrying white flowers. Awesome.

Arizona Sycamore

When you ride your bike through town sometimes you're hit with a sweet, green smell of the Arizona sycamore. It will take you back to all your memories of camping and hiking up creek beds in the 2000 to 5000 feet elevations.

It's a floodplain tree, and needs lots of water to survive. Its bark is mottled and nearly all white when the brown outer bark strips away. It is tall, reaching up to 80 feet. In the spring you can notice small, tiny, hairy brown balls that the flower produces as its fruit.

Its smell will get you drunk with delight. I love the sweet sycamore and would consider it an honored resident in my front yard some day. It is one of the best ornamental trees.

The Palo Verde

So. I was talking to my friend, who is a landscape architect. He tells me my previous post was really about an Indian Fig. I still claim it's a Bottle tree. My pride is as solid as oak. My knowledge is like a sapling.

Today's post is motivated by the recent display of yellow fireworks permanently positioned on our Tucson streets for a couple weeks this month. The Palo Verde. Translated from Spanish it means green tree, which is funny because their is a blue palo verde. And amazingly it holds true to its name.

There are some great varieties of this the "Cercidium" genus. The ones posted here, I believe, are Desert Museum Palo Verdes. A museum apparently has a genetic patent on the specie. It's a great cross. History records that a Mark Dimmitt in the 1970's, working for the museum, noticed a specie that was hardy, thornless, and grand. He isolated the specie and allowed it to pollinate its own kind only. Later genetic tests would show the Desert Museum Palo Verde to be a hybrid of the blue, Mexican and Foothill Palo Verde. Dimmitt, a modern day Mendel.

Other varieties include the Little-leaf palo verde and Mesa palo verde. Their fruit has been consumed by Seri, a northern Mexico Native American tribe, for centuries. They used to eat, grind into flour, and boil it with meat. The tree is a part of the Leguminosae family. In portuguese, vegetables are legumes, which makes sense as to why the pod is edible. (I love when I can link life with Latin)

The Palo Verde is also our state tree! They make poor sling shots (bendable). And they help raise saguaro cactus. Their shade and their litter of beans, leaves, and flowers provide protection and nutrients for saguaro cactus. So while out for a stroll in the great Sonoran Desert, see how many saguaro you see shooting up near a Palo Verde.

The Bottle Tree

Three of these stand post outside our apartment complex. These are my wood brothers. Why? Because like one guide book points out, the tree "revels in heat." (Plants for Dry Climates, 59)
Quick facts:
Latin name: Brachychiton populneus
Growth: Fast, 20 feet in 5 years
Pros for the yard: rustles like a poplar, sparkles in the sun. Good background or screen or side wall with rows of these. Has cool little brown boat seed pods. Needs little maintenance. If I were planning my yard, I'd put a row of these on the west side of the yard or house where they wave reflective sunlight to anyone in sight as the sun is setting.
Cons for the yard: Just can't take the cold