DESERT PLANTS
DETAILED, ACCURATE PLANT DESCRIPTIONS AND HELPFUL VISUAL ELEMENTS ENABLES THE READER TO IDENTIFY PLANTS WITH CONFIDENCE AND CERTAINTY.
DEVIL'S CLAW (UNICORN PLANT)
(Proboscidea altheaefolia)
Overview: prostrate, viscid, and pubescent perennial with a strikingly beautiful flower.
Flowers: golden yellow; corolla: five lobed, deep throat that bears splashes and streaks of red. Inflorescence: raceme.
Calyx: 5 sepals.
Leaves: oval, scalloped lobes, entire, pronounced venation and petioled. Lower: primarily opposite.
Fruit: a curved and elongated capsule. At maturity, part of the fruit wall splits to create two curved pieces forming the "devil's claw"; once seen—never for-gotten. When the claw splits open, dozens of black, edible seeds are released.
Notes: a prostrate creeping plant of the summer flora. Bumblebees and carpenter bees are active pollinators of the flower. Fibers from this plant are sought after in basket weaving. P. parviflora, which has pinkish-purple flowers, is an annual.
Native people cultivated this plant for its fruit as a source of fibers for basket weaving. The cultivated plants produce enlarged “claws”, the fiber source.
YELLOW COLUMBINE (Aquilegia chrysantha)
Overview: perennial herb; its stem has a heavy, woody base and its flowers support an impressive spur.
Flowers: golden-yellow; corolla: 5 petals, drama-tically long spur (to 3”) that projects backwards. Large assemblage of stamens that are even longer than the corolla tube (to 4”).
Calyx: 5 lanceolate sepals.
Leaves: segmented into several lobes; elongated petiole (2-6”).
Fruit: follicle.
Hand lens: 5 independent pistils.
Notes: favors moist sites; truly an extraordinarily picturesque flower; not surprisingly, a popular plant in desert gardens.
WHITE PRICKLY POPPY (Argemone polyanthemos)
Overview: stout, coarse, and erect perennial with yellow sap; armored with formidable prickles.
Flowers: white with a central area filled with yellow stamens; corolla: 6 thin and delicate (tissue paper fineness) petals that move readily in the wind. Inflorescence: solitary and terminal.
Calyx: bears prickles.
Leaves: strongly pinnately divided, prickles on leaves and stem are pronounced—particularly along leaf venation.
Fruit: capsule that opens by an apical valve and bears pronounced spine (tip).
Hand lens: deep yellow, circular anthers; solitary pistil with a red maroon spiny stigma.
Notes: this massive poppy can reach 5 feet with leaves that can extend eight inches. Packed with noxious phytochemicals, it is distasteful to grazing animals; thus, it tends to occupy stressed, overgrazed areas as well as roadsides. Bears the amusing common name of “cowboy fried eggs”.
DEVIL'S CLAW (UNICORN PLANT)
YELLOW COLUMBINE
WHITE PRICKLY POPPY
