DESERT & MOUNTAINSCreated By:Amparo De MollinedoAndrea HernandezCarlos Jusdado

LOW DESERT SCRUB

CREOSOTE BUSH The most widely distributed shrub in the North American deserts

-Shiny, waxy, dark green leaves and small yellow flowers

-Can pull water out of extremely dry soil

-Indians utilized it for firewood, glue, tea, and a general antiseptic

BURROWEED A small shrub that is widely distributed in the Mojave & Sonoran Deserts

-Small, deeply-toothed light-gray leaves that are green just in spring

-Most leaves are shed during the long dry periods revealing white, densely branched stems

OCOTILLO One of the most conspcuous and unusual desert shrubs

-Long, unbranched, spiny stems radiate upward from the a single base

-Stems can reach 20 feet in length

-Red flowers at their tips provide crucial nectar for hummingbirds

-Small green leaves are produced quickly after rain showers, but are shed soon after the soil dries (this cycle may occur several times a year)

BRITTLE-BUSH-Very brittle stems bearing silvery leaves and yellow, daisy-like flowers

-The leaves produce a water soluble chemical that act as a germination inhibitor, that prevent annuals from growing around the plant’s perimeter

-Indians utilize the resin from its woody stems as a chewing gum, incense, varnish, and as a pain reliever

CHUPEROSA- Appears throughout desert habitats at lower elevations

- Often leafless when limited rainfall, but stems can photsynthesize

- Grey-green stems and leaves with tubular red flowers to attract hummingbirds responsible for their pollination

JOJOBA

- Medium-sized shrub found on dry rocky slopes at lower elevations

- Gray-green leathery leaves are distinctly-vertically oriented

- Separate male and female plants

- Greenish flowers; brown fruit (similar to an acorn) were used to make a coffee-like beverage by Natives and early Californians

- Oil from seeds has a commercial use (thermally-stable and lubricating)

MOJAVE YUCCA- On dry rocky slopes and mesas from

the coast to Colorado desert

- Rigid, long green leaves armed with sharp spines at their tips (called Spanish bayonet)

- Distinct “trunks” grow up to 12 feet

- Cream-colored flowers borne in clusters at ends of trunk

- This long-lived species of yucca can flower many times, but not each year

- Fibers that curl off of the leaf margins were used by Natives to make baskets, cloth, rope, thread

- The fruits were eaten raw, flower heads & stems were cooked, and fleshy roots and stems used to make soap

DESERT PRICKLY PEAR-Stems are flattened, leafless pads with long white spines

-Cactus is short, multibranched, and bears yellow flowers and red fruit

BEAVERTAIL CACTUS-Often confused with the desert prickly pear cactus

-Spines are absent, but has areoles with small tufts of sharp bristles

-The characteristic shape of the cactus pad that gives this species its name

-This cactus produces magenta flowers in late spring and early summer

JUMPING CHOLLA-Characterized by its distinctly erect trunk

-Short branches and numerous spines

-The easily-detached stems fall to the ground where they can take root

-Also called “teddy bear” cholla because of its brown color and fuzzy-looking spines.

SILVER CHOLLA

- Intricately branched

- Found in Mojave and Colorado Deserts in sandy or gravelly soils between 1,000 and 4,000 ft

- Slender medium-green stems with pale sparsely scattered spines, hard to detach

- Yellow/bronze flowers in spring

DESERT BARREL CACTUS

- Large, single-stem round cactus with lengthwise “ribs”

- Attains height of 3 – 4 ft and 1 ft in diameter

- (Larger than the coastal species)

- Long spines (up to 6 in long)

- Yellow flowers at the top of the cactus in spring

- Common at lower elevations on rocky or gravelly hillsides

- Natives used the hollowed barrel as a cooking pot

DESERT WASH

PALO VERDE- Small-to-medium tree common along washes; lebume family

- Green bark can photosynthesize when the tree is leafless in dry season

- Covered with bright yellow flowers in spring

- Bi-pinnate leaves and elongated seed pods

SMOKE TREE

- Small tree of sandy desert washes at lower elevations

- Intricate, spiny-tipped branches

- Leaves absent most of the year, so grey-green bark carries on most photosynthesis

- Masses of small, purple pea-like flowers cover it in early summer

MESQUITE- Most important plant to Southwest Natives; beans were ground in meals

and wood used for housing, burning, bows and arrows, basketry

- Narrow bipinnately compound leaves

- Extremely deep root systems are able to reach water year-round

IRONWOOD- Medium-sized, legume tree found in desert washes with mesquite and

catclaw

- It has a simple pinnate, bluish leaf, elongate seed pods, and scaly bark

- Small rose-colored flowers in spring

- Extremely hard wood good for carvings, tool handles and arrowheads

DESERT WILLOW- Elongated, willow-like leaves, but it is neither a willow nor a legume,

but rather a member of the tropical Bignonia family

- Found in the washes with mesquite and catclaw

- Different from other desert shrubs as it is leafless and dormant in winter

- Pink flowers look like thoseof snapdragons

- Seeds in long, silky pods

- Wood used for bows & arrows

CATCLAW- One of several deeply-rooted shrubs/trees of the legume family found in

sandy washes throughout the deserts of North America

- Small, bi-pinnate leaves are shed in winter, recurved (“catclaw”) spines

- Yellow flowers in late spring; seeds (in pods ~3 in long) are food for many animals

MOUNTAINS

BLACK OAK- This tall (~75 feet) tree forms a black-oak woodland at lower elevations, but

is mixed with conifers at higher elevations

- Unlike “live oaks,” the large (~4-8 inch) leaves of this oak are shed in winter

- Acorns take two years to mature

- Seriously depleted as fuel for gold smelters

JEFFREY PINE

- Found from Oregon to Baja California, on well drained moist soils at Intermediate elevations (4,000 to 9,000 ft)

- Attains 100 to 180 ft height and from 4 to 6 ft in diameter

- Reddish-brown bark, deeply furrowed, irregular plates

- Dense blue-green needles in bundles of three, 5 to 8 in long

- Medium-size cones about 7 in long; scales have inward curved pickles

- Natives made baskets out of small roots; Wood is commercially valuable

SUGAR PINE

- From Oregon into Baja California

- From the coast to 10,000ft

- Cool slopes and canyons in mixed stands

- Grow to about 200 ft high and 3 to 6 ft wide

- Straight trunk and crown tends to flatten

- Bark of young trees is grey but turns reddish-brown when older

- Blue-green slender needles 3 in long

- Cones attain 2ft long 5 in wide, most 16 long

- Scales are brown-black inside with yellow-brown tip

- Wood important for industry

- Seeds eaten by the Indians

COULTER PINE- Central California to northern Baja

California

- In southern California found in warm slopes and ridges with oaks, incense cedar, yellow pine…

- Resembles Digger pine but no branched trunk, larger cones

- Cones: tip of scale darker than the base *

- Seeds were a stale food for Indians

Coulter Pine

Sugar PineJeffrey Pine

INCENSE CEDAR- From 1,500 to 8,000 ft from Southern Oregon to northern Baja California

- Shady, cool northern and eastern slopes in mixed stands

- Up to 90 ft tall and a trunk of up to 4 ft in diameter

- Cinnamon-brown bark 2 to 3 in thick at base appears furrowed and ridged

- Dark-green scale-like leaves arranged in pairs arranged in pairs

- Tips of branches flattened , small cones in 3 pairs of scales mature in 1 season. Reddish wood for pencils

CYPRUS

Cones- Sugar Pine

- Coulter Pine

- Jeffrey Pine

- Giant sequioa

- Cyprus

- Incense Cedar

Cones

- Sugar Pine Coulter Pine Jeffrey Pine Giant sequioa

Incense Cedar

Cuyamaca Cyperus