HABITATS

Natural History, March, 2000

Low desert is dominated by creosote bush, with its small yellow flowers and fuzzy fruits, and burroweed, also called bur sage, a shrubby relative of ragweed with spiny, burrlike fruits. Other common plants are dune evening primrose, globemallow, fishhook cactus, and a couple of kinds of prickly pear cacti. Desert annuals include dandelion, Bigelow's monkey flower, brown-eyed evening primrose, ghostflower, Arizona lupine, and slender bladderpod.

Desert washes support small trees such as palo verde, ironwood, and honey mesquite, while the most common shrubs are desert willow, indigobush, desert lavender, desert aster, and cheesebush (burrobush), a plant with obscure greenish flowers and winged fruits. Conspicuous flowers are produced by chuparosa, whose long tubular red flowers are a favorite of hummingbirds; desert aster, a daisylike plant with bright blue flower heads; desert lily, whose white petals have a silver-green stripe; and trixis, with yellow, daisylike flowers.

Lower desert slopes have a dozen or so cacti, including beavertail, prickly pear, Engelmann's hedgehog, teddybear cholla, buckhorn cholla, and desert barrel. Large plants such as desert agave, Mojave yucca, and ocotillo are often present. Other shrubs include desert thorn, indigobush, creosote bush, burroweed, brittlebush, and wishbone bush.

Chaparral has California scrub oak, chamise, greenback ceanothus, manzanita, and three types of sumac--sugar-bush, skunkbrush, and lemonade berry. A yucca with the engaging name of Our Lord's candle is often present, as well as two kinds of cacti, the beavertail and the cane cholla.

Palm oases include Mountain Palm Springs (where for some reason the palms are stunted), Torote Canyon, and Borrego Palm Canyon. Along the trail leading to the latter grow brittlebush, lavender bush, desert Datura, ocotillo, indigobush, cheesebush, desert croton, sand verbena, chuparosa, and desert trumpet. More than 800 palms grow at this oasis, along with such moisture-loving plants as honey mesquite, desert willow, three-square sedge, desert rush, and arrowweed.