Part 9

Common to all of the deserts crossed by the boundary between the United States and Mexico, ocotillo (oh-koh-TEE-yoh) is a spectacular shrub, its many long, stiff, green-barked and thorn-guarded stems bearing at their tips clusters of bright red flowers from April to June. Following rains, the stems cover themselves with clusters of bright green leaves. When drought comes these leaves are shed, to be renewed again after another rain. This procedure may be repeated half a dozen times in one year. Cahuilla Indians eat both flowers and seeds, and make a beverage by soaking the blossoms in water. When planted as hedgerows the thorny wands make an impenetrable fence.

Fouquieria splendens Ocotillo Family

63. Field bind-weed

Also known as “wild morning glory,” this naturalized perennial has become a serious agricultural pest throughout the Southwest. In California it is considered the State’s worst weed. Once established, its deep root system spreads widely, sending up shoots that grow rapidly with climbing, vine-like stems and morning glory-like white to pink flowers that bloom from May to July. In the desert it is usually found on road shoulders, where it makes an attractive display. The name convolvulus comes from the Latin and means “to entwine.” A blood-clotting substance has been found in this plant.

Convolvulus arvensis Convolvulus Family

64. Santa Fe phlox

Usually found in desert mountain ranges, at elevations between 5,000 and 6,000 feet, this ground-hugging, herbaceous perennial blossoms in May and June. Flowers are larger than those of the several other desert species of phlox, most of which have longer flower stems and vary in color from white to purple.

Phlox nana Phlox Family

65. Starflower

More commonly known as “gilia” in honor of the eighteenth-century Italian botanist Felippo Luigo Gilii, the many species of gilias are common and widespread throughout the deserts of the Southwest at nearly all elevations. Since the flowers are usually small and range in color from white to lavender, pink, and yellow, they are not as well known as more spectacular genera. Some are annuals but there are also many perennial species. Starflower is found from west Texas and Chihuahua to western Arizona at elevations from 1,000 to 8,000 feet on dry plains and mesas, especially on limestone soils. It blossoms from March to October.

Gilia longiflora Phlox Family

66. Phacelia

Known also as “scorpionweed” and “wild heliotrope,” phacelia is a handsome plant with coarse foliage, somewhat hairy and sticky. Among other plants it often grows to a height of 18 inches, but on dry, open desert flats is usually much shorter. Flowers, which may be found from February to June, are sweet scented, but the foliage has a disagreeable odor. Crenulata, which is one of many species, grows from New Mexico and southern Utah throughout Arizona to Lower California. It is conspicuous among the spring-blooming flowers of the desert. The curling flower heads which bear some resemblance to the erect tail of a scorpion are responsible for the name “scorpionweed.”

Phacelia crenulata Waterleaf Family

67. Nama

In favorable years these ground-hugging plants form broad, colorful mats, but in dry seasons these annuals may be tiny, each with a single flower almost as large as the rest of the plant. Flowering from February to May, bloom is heaviest in March and April. This species, also called “purplemat,” is common on flat, sandy, open desert soils from southeastern California and Baja California to southeastern Arizona at elevations below 3,500 feet. Because of its low-growing habit, nama requires that you lie prone to examine it closely, hence is one of the many small desert herbs called “bellyflowers.”

Nama demissum Waterleaf Family

68. Buffalobur

Believed to be the original host of the Colorado potato beetle, this annual is a pest on rangelands because of its spine-covered stems and fruits. Spines are long, straight, sharp, and straw-colored. It is common on desert plains and mesas at elevations from 1,000 up to 7,000 feet, blooming from June to August. The leaves and unripe fruits of this and several other species are reportedly poisonous, as they contain an alkaloid, solanin.

Solanum rostratum Potato Family

69. Silverleaf nightshade

Also known as “white horse-nettle,” “bull-nettle” and “trompillo,” silverleaf nightshade is a showy plant when in blossom May to October along roadsides and in open fields at elevations from 1,000 to 5,500 feet from Kansas and Colorado to Arizona, California, and south to tropical America. It is an agricultural pest in irrigated areas, difficult to eradicate. Pima Indians used the crushed fruits as an additive to milk in making cheese. A close relative, Solanum jamesii is known as wild-potato as it produces small tubers eaten by desert Indians.

Solanum elaeagnifolium Potato Family

70. Sacred datura

One of the really striking flowers of the deserts and mesas, the large, showy, trumpet-shaped blossoms and broad, dark green leaves of the datura or “western jimson” arouse the curiosity of persons seeing them for the first time. Quite common along roadsides below 6,000 feet from California to Texas and Mexico, the white blossoms remain open at night but close and droop soon after sunrise. The summer-blooming plants often grow in large clumps with buds, flowers, and maturing fruits all present at the same time. Indians used the plants for various medicinal purposes, a dangerous practice, since all parts of the plant contain various alkaloids, including atropine. Roots are narcotic and were sometimes eaten by Indians to induce visions.

Datura meteloides Potato Family

71. Tree tobacco

Sometimes growing to a height of 10 or 12 feet, the graceful swaying branches of tree tobacco bear at their ends clusters of tubular, greenish-yellow blossoms 2 to 3 inches long. The leaves contain the alkaloid anabasine, which is poisonous to livestock. Leaves of the closely related and much smaller desert tobacco, Nicotiana trigonophylla, contain nicotine and have long been smoked by desert Indians. The plant is still so used on ceremonial occasions. Nicotiana was named for Jean Nicot, French ambassador to Portugal, who introduced tobacco to France about 1560.