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Identifying the trees around here is fairly easy (maybe 6-7?). But, the shrubs are a different matter! Especially the ugly ones (smile). The great mystery is how they survive during extended droughts. Month after month, no rain and the hot sun bearing down. If you're a visitor or new, the sugar sumac is the most odd. They're the large dark green bushes with waxy leaves. For the martian-other-worldliness vote, the crucifiction thorn has to be it! But for you medicinal plant people, it's the mormon tea plant that will truly pull at your tender heart-strings!
BEST BOOK:
Shrubs and Trees of the Southwest by Francis Elmore 1976
MANZANITA (arctostaphylos pungens) If you're looking up on the hills and you see bushes, it's probably manzanita!
It's the 'wirey' bush with a shiny-red trunk and branches. Waxy green leaves. Most are 'pointed manzanita' by the shape of the leaf. The alternative is 'pringles manzanita'(artctostaphylos pringlei) a tree-like variety. Name from spanish 'little apples' (marble-size fruits). Delicious jellies!
SUGAR SUMAC (rhus ovata) Again looking in the distance, they're the larger green bushes: sumac!
About 10ft and taller than you with a dense and waxy set of leaves. Hard to miss. Most amazing is to find it in some of the most dry and 'unwatered' locations. But they seem happy! Many varieties of birds feed on the red fruit. Interesting: same family as poison ivy (but not harmful).
MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY (cercocarpus betuloides) These bushes are mainly about chest-high, plus or minus, and during dry times, seem to be dying (drop their leaves to retain water).
The wood is tough and thus it is often called Ironwood; when green it will sink in water. You'll often see mule deer eating it, thus the name 'Sweetbrush'. Of course the fascinating part is its 'play-dead' strategy during droughts!
CREOSOTE (larrea tridenata) Very common shrub toward Phoenix, but also found here. Usually about waist-high with many branches from ground-level trunk.
Gives the desert its smell after a rain. Used as a 'drugstore' by native-amerians but few mammals can consume it. Discourages competitors near it by a toxic substance from its roots. Leaves have a 'varnish' that discourages evaporation. Very smart plant; most common in desert!
MORMON TEA (ephedra viridis) Not REAL common but very interesting. Vertical green branches from a common ground-level trunk. Up to 4' tall. TINY little leaves.
No measurable alkaloid ephedra but is a very pleasant tea. Its taller cousin, also an ephedra, looks like a small stunted pine with jointed long needles and thought to be ancient with conifer-like cones. Quite interesting!
CRUCIFICTION THORN (conotia holacantha) What a name and it fits! It's 6-18' tall with no leaves and green thorny stems.
The Crucifiction variety is freeze-resistent and branchlets are straight, rather than zigzag. Its name derives from making a very stylish though painful 'hat' from it.
The other variety possible here, Corona de Christo (castela emoryi), is smaller and has dark pod-clusters viewable from a distance.
Copyright ©, 2006, dmbarnhart
