Part 5

It grows as a graceful shrub or small tree with drooping branches covered with small, scale-like leaves and is abundant in moist locations below 5,000 feet. It prefers a hot climate, low humidity, and saline soils. In river bottoms, it often forms dense thickets which require immense quantities of water, hence rob the few desert streams of a high percentage of their moisture.

Honeybees obtain nectar from the blossoms, which are particularly noticeable in the spring and early summer, as they completely cover the branches which appear as light pink, drooping plumes. The thickets are valuable as wind breaks and in erosion control, and once established, are very difficult to control and because of the deep shade cast by their dense growth and the heavy feeding of the shallow roots, they prevent cropping.

The name Tamarisk is often confused with the name of the Larch or Tamarack tree. There is little similarity except in the name.

The larger _Tamarix aphylla_ is similar in appearance but much larger and suitable for cultivation as a shade and decorative tree. It is subject to winterkill, but does not have the bad habit of spreading, characteristic of _T. pentandra_.

PINK

Common name: DESERT-PHLOX Arizona desert: (_Phlox tenuifolia_). White-lavender. Spring. California desert: (_Phlox stansburyi_). Pinkish-red. May-July. Texas desert: (_Phlox mesoleuca_). Pink-white. June-August. Phlox family. Size: Low-growing perennials, in clumps; or shrubby plants in tufts up to 3 feet tall.

Representatives of the Phlox genus are found from the hot desert lowlands to the mountain tops well above the timberline. Certain species are limited in their range to the desert areas of the Southwest, and it is in these that we are interested here. The plants sometimes present a mass of heavy bloom twice yearly: heaviest in the spring, and again following the summer rains. Several of the native species have been brought under cultivation, particularly _P. tenuifolia_, in desert gardens, as it grows naturally in a brushy habitat similar to that formed by the shrubs planted around a house. Other forms grow as low, creeping mats forming fragrant, colorful floral carpets.

LAVENDER

Common names: DESERTWILLOW, DESERT-CATALPA Arizona, California, and Texas deserts: (_Chilopsis linearis_). Pink-lavender. April-August. Bignonia family. Size: Shrubby tree, 6 to 15 feet high.

Although a close relative of the Catalpa, the willow-like foliage of this small tree has given it the name Desertwillow. A small and inconspicuous part of the desert vegetation when not in flower, unnoticed among the heavier growth of trees and shrubs that crowd the banks of desert washes, the tree’s beautiful orchid-like flowers of white to lavender mottled with dots and splotches of brown and purple bring exclamations of delight from persons viewing them for the first time. Because of the beauty of the tree when in bloom, it is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental.

Leaves are rarely browsed by livestock, and the durable, black-barked wood is used for fenceposts. In Mexico, a tea made by steeping the dried flowers is considered to be of medicinal value. By early autumn, the violet-scented flowers which appear after summer rains are replaced by the long, slender seed pods which remain dangling from the branches and serve to identify the tree long after the flowers are gone.

Although Desertwillows are never found in pure stands, growing singly and rather infrequently among other trees and shrubs lining desert washes, the species is quite common below 4,000 feet across the entire desert from western Texas to southern Nevada, southern California and southward into Mexico.

LAVENDER

Common names: ORGANPIPE CACTUS, SINITA; (_PITAHAYA DULCE_) Arizona desert: (_Lemaireocereus thurberi_). Pink lavender. May-June. Arizona desert: (_Lophocereus schotti_). Pink. April-August. Cactus family. Size: In clumps, stems up to 15 feet.

Two somewhat similar, columnar cacti occur in the United States only in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and in its immediate vicinity. Both are fairly common in northwestern Mexico.

These two spectacular desert giants with their clumps of erect branches are sufficiently similar to be readily confused at first glance. However, the stems of the Organpipe (_L. thurberi_) are longer and contain more but much smaller ridges than do the stems of the Sinita or “Whisker cactus.” The name “Sinita” (meaning old age) refers to the long, gray, hair-like spines covering the upper ends of the Sinita stems.

Both species are night-blooming, the flowers, which appear along the sides and at the tips of the stems, closing soon after sunrise the following morning. Fruits of the Organpipe are harvested by the Papago Indians.

Although these two species of cactus are restricted to a very limited area, they are sufficiently spectacular and interesting to be considered worthy of inclusion in this booklet. It was to protect these species, threatened with extinction in the United States, and other rare and interesting forms of desert plants and animals, that Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was established.

LAVENDER

Common names: PINCUSHION CACTUS, FISHHOOK CACTUS, CORKSEED CACTUS, NIPPLE CACTUS, BUTTON CACTUS Arizona desert: (_Mammillaria microcarpa_). Lavender. June-July. California desert: (_Mammillaria tetrancistra_). Lavender. June-July. Texas-New Mexico deserts: (_Mammillaria micromeris_). Lavender. Early summer. Cactus family. Size: Cucumber-shaped and 3 to 10 inches high.

Unlike blossoms of many of the Cacti, flowers of the little _Mammallarias_ often last for several days. Blossoms are pink or lavender, occasionally yellow, while the fruits are finger- or club-shaped and red. Being small and forming low clumps, or with single pincushion-like stems, they often escape attention except when glorified with bright, comparatively large flowers, which often form a crown around the top of the plant. The long spines are curved at the tips giving the plant the appearance of being covered with unbarbed fishhooks.

The Pincushion cacti, of which there are a number of species throughout the Southwest, occur in dry, sandy hills from southern Utah to western Texas and in southern California and northern Mexico. The red fruits are bare, without scales, spines, or hairs.

LAVENDER

Common names: GILIA, STARFLOWER Arizona desert: (_Gilia filifolia_). Lavender. April-May. California desert: (_Gilia latifolia_). Pink-lavender. March-April. Texas desert: (_Gilia longiflora_). Blue-lavender. April-October. Phlox family. Size: 6 to 24 inches high.

Although the Gilias are not generally well known, they are common, quite widely distributed throughout the Southwest, and their beauty deserves wider recognition. There are a great many species (of which early flowering _G. inconspicua_ is perhaps the commonest) at higher elevations as well as throughout the desert. Many of these are worthy of cultivation as ornamentals. Desert species, in general, are pale blue, white, or lavender while those of the higher elevations are pink, coral, or yellow to scarlet; although this is by no means a hard-and-fast rule.

Following winters of above-normal precipitation, desert species sometimes produce such heavy stands that the flowers cover large areas with a delicate pale blue or lavender carpet. Some species are attractive to Hummingbirds.

LAVENDER

Common names: PHACELIA, SCORPIONWEED, WILD-HELIOTROPE Arizona desert: (_Phacelia crenulata_). Violet-purple. February-June. California desert: (_Phacelia distans_). Blue-violet. March-May. Texas desert: (_Phacelia coerulea_). Violet-purple. March-April. Waterleaf family. Size: 4 to 16 inches tall.

Although strongly scented, it is not accurate to refer to these annuals as fragrant, for they are sometimes unpleasant in odor, and occasionally actually foul-smelling. Some are described as having an onion-like odor.

_P. crenulata_ with its rich, violet-purple flowers is conspicuous across southern New Mexico, Arizona and California to Lower California. This species is often called Wild-heliotrope.

The name Scorpionweed comes from the curling habit of the blossoming flower heads which somewhat resemble the flexed tail of a scorpion in striking position.

Common names: SQUAW-THORN, RABBIT-THORN, DESERT-THORN, WOLFBERRY, SQUAWBERRY, (_TOMATILLO_) Arizona desert: (_Lycium pallidum_). Green-lavender. April-June. California desert: (_Lycium andersoni_). Lavender. February-April. Texas desert: (_Lycium berlanderi_). Lavender-cream. March-September. Potato family. Size: Thorny shrubs, stiff and brushy, up to 6 feet.

Noticeable in winter because of their off-season greenery and early flowers which cover the bushes and attract many insects, and attractive in late spring and summer due to the numerous tomato-colored berries hanging from their stiff, thorny stems, the Squaw-thorns are widely distributed throughout the desert.

These plants have contributed much to the subsistence of the Indians, their insipid, slightly bitter, juicy berries being eaten raw or prepared as a sauce. These berries are eagerly sought by birds, which also use the stiff shrubs for cover and for protective roosts at night.

Early spring is the normal blooming season, but some flower again following summer or early fall rains.

VIOLET

Common names: CENIZA, SENISA, ASHPLANT, WILD-LILAC Texas desert: (_Leucophyllum frutescens_). Lilac-violet. August-October. (Leucophyllum texanum). Violet-purple. August-October. Figwort family. Size: Bushy shrub, 3 to 4 feet high.

In southern Texas, thick patches of this shrub are sometimes found, although they commonly occur singly or a few together, usually on limestone soils. Since the leaves are a light gray-green, plants appear to be ashy in color, giving rise to the name “Ceniza,” meaning “ashy.” Spectacular in Big Bend National Park.

So sensitive is this plant to moisture, that it may burst into blossom within a few hours after a soaking rain, this phenomenon giving rise to the local belief that the plant actually blossoms before the rain, thereby forecasting precipitation; hence the name “Barometerbush.” During recent years, Ceniza has become one of the popular native shrubs used in landscaping.

Under normal conditions, plants blossom in September.

VIOLET

Common names: FILEREE OR FILAREE, HERONBILL, (_ALFILERIA_) Arizona and Texas deserts: (_Erodium texanum_). Pink-violet. February-March. California desert. (_Erodium cicutarium_). Rose-violet. February-March. Geranium family. Size: 3 to 12 inches high.

Believed to have been introduced from the Mediterranean countries at an early date by the Spaniards, _Alfileria_ is now widespread and extensively naturalized throughout the Southwest. In the desert, it is one of the common winter annuals and furnishes excellent spring forage especially following moist winters. The plants remain green for only a few weeks, but are good forage even after the stems have dried.

Although the blossoms are not large nor sufficiently numerous to make a colorful display, they are attractive and welcome, as they are among the first spring flowers to put in an appearance. “Tails” of the fruits are long and slender, somewhat resembling a Heron’s bill, and upon maturity twist into a tight spiral when dry. Upon becoming moist, they uncoil, driving the sharp-tipped seeds into the soil. Seeds are gathered and stored by Ants which discard the husks and coiled “tails” outside their nests, thus building up a circular band of chaff around the Ant-hill.

VIOLET

Common names: IRONWOOD, DESERT-IRONWOOD, TESOTA, (_PALO-DE-HIERRO_) Arizona and California deserts: (_Olneya tesota_). Violet-purple. May-June. Pea family. Size: Wide-crowned tree up to 35 feet.

Ironwood is one of the desert’s most beautiful trees, being particularly colorful when the new, dark-green leaves and violet, wisteria-like flowers give it a lavender glow in late May or early June. Since the tree survives only in warm locations, it has for years served as a guide to citrus growers in selecting sites for orange, lemon, or grapefruit plantings.

Foliage of the Ironwood is dense and evergreen, and the wood is very heavy and so hard that it cannot be worked with ordinary tools. When thoroughly dry, it makes high-quality firewood, and as a result it has been cut and removed over much of the desert, hence mature trees are becoming relatively scarce. Indians used the wood for arrow points and as tool handles.

Ironwood trees grow along desert washes, often in company with Mesquite and Paloverde. Blossoms are much more numerous in some years than in others. Although the trees, when in bloom, make a spectacular showing, they are very difficult to capture on color film, and photographs that do them justice are rare. Seeds, which mature late in the summer, are roasted and eaten by desert Indians who prize them for their peanut-like flavor. They are eaten also by various desert animals.

In Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and in some other parts of the desert, Ironwood trees have become heavily infested with Mistletoe which stunts or kills the branches and produces grotesque, tumor-like swellings.

VIOLET

Common names: ASTER, DESERT ASTER, MOHAVE-ASTER, TANSY ASTER Arizona desert: (_Aster tephrodes_). Amethyst blue. April-October. California desert: (_Aster abatus_). Violet to lavender. March-May. Texas desert: (_Aster tanacetifolius_). Bright violet. June-October. Sunflower family. Size: Few inches to 2½ feet tall.

Since the Aster is one of the most widespread and best-known of the flowers, it is usually easily recognized. There are many species, principally perennials, ranging from low-growing, single-stemmed plants, sprawling, many-stemmed plants with large flowers, to tall bushes. Desert species are found on dry, rocky hillsides and along roadsides and on waste ground.

The Aster is by no means restricted to the desert. Over much of the United States they are considered as fall bloomers, but many species blossom in the spring while others are at their floral best in midsummer.

VIOLET

Common names: PENTSTEMON, BEARDTONGUE Arizona desert: (_Pentstemon pseudospectabilis_). Rose-purple. April-July. California desert. (Pentstemon thurberi). Blue-purple. April-June. Texas desert: (_Pentstemon fendleri_). Blue-purple. April-June. Figwort family. Size: Perennial herbs from a few inches high to 3 feet or more tall.

Widespread through the Southwest at nearly all elevations, the Penstemons are conspicuous herbs or small shrubs with showy flowers that attract attention and admiration when they are in bloom in the spring and early summer on the desert.

PURPLE

Common names: LUPINE, BLUEBONNET Arizona desert: (_Lupinus sparsiflorus_). Violet-purple. January-May. California desert: (_Lupinus odoratus_). Royal purple. April-May. Texas desert: (_Lupinus havardi_). Blue-purple. March-April. Pea family. Size: Bushy, and up to 2 or 2½ feet tall.

Lupines are among the old dependables of spring display flowers of the desert, usually mingling with other blossoming herbs to create the bright color pattern for which the desert is famous in early spring, but occasionally growing in pure stands. Ranging in color from pale pink to deep purple, the Lupines are usually considered as blue flowers.

The name “Lupine” comes from the Latin word meaning wolf and was applied to these plants because they were believed to rob the soil of its fertility. Actually, they prefer the poorer, sandy soils and, by fixing in the soil nitrogen that they, in common with other plants of the pea family, are able to obtain from the air, they actually improve the land on which they grow.

Perhaps the best known display of Lupines takes place each spring in Texas. Here the “Bluebonnet” (_L. texensis_ and _L. subcarnosus_) has been named the state flower of Texas, and the annual spring display attracts thousands of people to the areas of heavy bloom. The majority of Lupines have handsome flowers, some species are fragrant, and several species are cultivated as ornamentals. The seeds of a few species contain alkaloids which are poisonous to livestock, especially sheep.

PURPLE

Common names: BROOMRAPE, BURROWED STRANGLER, CANCER-ROOT Arizona, California, and Texas deserts: (_Orobanche ludoviciana_). Brownish-purple. March-July. Broomrape family. Size: 4 to 15 inches tall.

This root parasite, although not common, is sufficiently strange and striking in appearance to arrest attention. Its purple to yellowish-brown, leafless flower stalks somewhat resembling coarse shoots of asparagus rise above the desert soil, usually in open, sandy locations.

Broomrape, of which there are several species, is found throughout the Southwest from southern Utah and Nevada to Texas, California, and Mexico.

The plant is parasitic on the roots of a number of different plants, but the desert species usually parasitize Burrobush, Bur-sage, and other composites. Flowers are small, purple with brown and white markings, and monopolize the plant stalk in the absence of foliage.

Underground parts of the plant were eaten by Southwestern Indians. The name “Cancer-root” refers to the reported efficacy of treatment in applying the stems of the plant to ulcers.

PURPLE

Common names: MILKVETCH, LOCOWEED, RATTLEWEED, WOOLLY-LOCO Arizona and California deserts: (_Astragalus nuttalianus_). White-purple. February-May. Texas deserts: (_Astragalus mollissimus_). Purple. April-May. Pea family. Size: 4 to 12 inches high.

A very large genus of plants, with 78 species recorded in Arizona alone, _Astragalus_ ranges from the driest, hottest parts of the desert to high mountain peaks and the far north. _A. nuttalianus_ is the commonest of the desert species and is found on dry plains, mesas, and slopes below 4,000 feet from Arkansas and Texas westward to California and south into Mexico.

Some of the species, of which _Mollisimus_ (Wooly-loco) is one, contain a poisonous constituent causing the well-known and often fatal loco disease of livestock, particularly horses. (Loco is a Spanish word meaning “crazy.”) Other species which prefer soils rich in selenium take up enough of that toxic mineral to make them poisonous to livestock, especially sheep.

Nearly all of the species are colorful and spectacular when in blossom, and some of them have a rank, disagreeable odor.

PURPLE

Common names: PURPLE NIGHTSHADE, GROUNDCHERRY, WILD POTATO, (_TROMPILLO_), HORSENETTLE Arizona and California deserts: (_Solanum xanti_). Purple. April-August. Texas desert: (_Solanum elaeagnifolium_). Purple-violet. May-September. Potato family. Size: Up to 3 feet.

Quite showy when in flower, these common roadside plants attract considerable attention during the late spring and summer. Some species become troublesome in cultivated fields and are difficult to eradicate. An alkaloid, solanin, reported as present in the leaves and unripe fruits of several species, renders them poisonous. Pima Indians add the crushed berries of _S. elaeagnofolium_ to milk in making cheese.

The yellow-flowered _S. rostratum_ is heavily covered with spines, including both stems and fruit, giving it the name of Buffalobur. This species is said to be the original host of the now widespread pest, the Colorado Potato Beetle.

PURPLE

Common names: WILD-HELIOTROPE, QUAILPLANT, CHINESE-PUSLEY Arizona, California and Texas deserts: (_Heliotropium curassavicum_). Purple. March-April. Borage family. Size: Spreading, weak stems up to 18 inches.

Widely distributed on salty and alkaline soils throughout the warmer parts of the Western Hemisphere, there are several species and varieties of Wild-heliotrope. The flowers, which are almost white, shading to a pale purple in the corolla throat, open as the spike uncoils, perfuming the desert air with their fragrance. The name “Pusley” which is applied to this plant in some localities is possibly a corruption of “Purslane.”

Pima Indians are reported to powder the dried roots of these plants, applying the dust to wounds or sores. The name “Wild-heliotrope” is also applied to another desert flower, _Phacelia crenulata_ (which see), causing no little confusion.

PURPLE

Common names: ARROWWEED, MARSH-FLEABANE Arizona, California, and Texas deserts: (_Pluchea sericea_). Roseate purple. Spring. Sunflower family. Size: Perennial, 3 to 10 feet tall.

Seldom found above 3,000 feet elevation, the rank-smelling Arrowweed forms dense, willow-like thickets in stream beds and in moist, saline soils. It is common in moist locations from Texas to southern Utah and south into California and Mexico; usually in pure, dense stands.

The green foliage gives off an agreeable odor, but when the plant dries this becomes rank and unpleasant, clinging to the plant long after it has been cut. This odor is often a characteristic of native dwellings where Arrowweed has been used as a ceiling mat above the rafters.

Arrowweed is browsed by deer, and sometimes by horses and cattle. The straight stems were used by Indians in making arrowshafts, and are still important as a construction material in the walls and roofs of mud huts. The stems are used, also, by desert Indians in basketmaking, and in fabricating storage bins and animal cages. From the foliage of the stem tips, Pima Indians brewed a tea which they used as an eye wash.

The flowers are reported to furnish considerable nectar gathered by Honeybees. The blossoms are inconspicuous and develop into tawny-tufted seed-heads.

PURPLE

Common name: MONKEYFLOWER Arizona and California deserts: (_Mimulus bigelovi_). Red-purple. February-April. Texas desert: (_Mimulus glabratus_). Yellow. June. Figwort family. Size: Branching, creeping annual up to 8 inches.

Disproportionately large flowers for the size of the low-growing, small-leafed plant make it particularly conspicuous in the open, sandy locations where it blossoms in the springtime.

Although the Monkeyflower is usually thought of as moisture-loving, there are a number of desert species. The flowers are quite easy to recognize, as they closely resemble the Monkeyflowers which grow in the moist places surrounding seeps and springs, and they also are somewhat similar in appearance to their close relatives the Snapdragons and Pentstemons.

The desert species are well worthy of consideration for cultivation as garden ornamentals.

PURPLE