Desert Willow flowers decorate Las Cruces arroyos
What a difference a little spring rain makes! While desert willow blooms in June are familiar sights across the arid Southwest, even in drought years, the atypical and most welcome rains we enjoyed here in May apparently kicked this season’s show up a notch. In both natural areas and landscapes, these lovely native trees have been blooming for weeks, offering nectar to pollinators and smiles to human admirers.
Nearly any arroyo, dry wash, or stream bed is likely to feature some of these beauties, which often grow in stands of multiple plants along the banks. Some blooms are delightfully fragrant, some much less so, and I have yet to learn why that is. Most often the orchid-like flower is two-toned, pale pink in the center and deep pink on the outer edges, but colors can range from white – as in some along the Mimbres River (mimbre is a Spanish name for desert willow) – to pale pink to deep burgundy.
Whatever the hue, the blossoms are extremely popular with a wide array of nectar takers. Bird visitors include hummingbirds, orioles, tanagers, and verdins, and many butterflies, bees, and other insects home in on the blooms as well. Reportedly the primary pollinators are carpenter bees. The sigh-inducing flowers aren’t the only value to wildlife, as several bird species munch on the new buds in spring and also pluck the papery seeds out of the dangling pods once they mature. Lesser goldfinches seem to be particularly fond of both.
The name desert willow can cause misconceptions that the plant is a type of willow and thus might share some of the problems of those trees, such as water hogging and invasive root systems, but the two plants are not at all related. The name derives from its slender, willow-like leaves, and it’s actually more closely related to yellow bells and trumpet vine.
In the wild, mature trees typically have multiple, twisting trunks, shaggy bark, and an open, lacy, irregular crown. The leaves, ranging from light to dark green, have a waxy coating that helps conserve moisture during periods of drought. Flower clusters occur on branch tips and peak in springtime but can bloom intermittently in summer with rainfall or supplemental irrigation. The tan seedpods that follow are persistent, providing winter character after the leaves fall.
As a landscape planting, desert willow is an excellent choice. It’s easy to establish and fast-growing, achieving tree size in several years as opposed to a couple of decades, and it begins flowering at an early age. Once established, it’s extremely drought tolerant, thriving with a little supplemental water but surviving with much less, and it does beautifully in our rocky, sandy, or even clay, alkaline soils, needing no soil amendments or fertilizers. Blooming best in full sun, it can stand up to reflected heat well, and it’s also quite cold hardy.
Several cultivars are sometimes available in the nursery trade, all of them equally good choices. ‘Bubba’ has boldly two-toned flowers, ‘Desert Diva’ has deep burgundy flowers, dark green leaves, and fewer seed pods, and ‘Art’s Seedless’ has few if any seed pods.
This tough native tree lends charm to whatever spot it graces, whether shading a wall, providing a canopy for perennials to grow under, as a pretty accent in a pollinator garden, or for erosion control in arroyos or on slopes.
Wherever encountered right now – in the wild, along Main Street, or in your backyard – take a moment to linger by these enchanting blossoms and savor their incomparable beauty.
Marcy Scott is a local birder, botanizer, and author of "Hummingbird Plants of the Southwest." Along with her husband, Jimmy Zabriskie, she operates Robledo Vista Nursery in the North Valley, www.robledovista.com, specializing in native and adapted plants for birds and wildlife habitat. She can be reached at HummingbirdPlantsSW@gmail.com.
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This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Desert Willow flowers decorate Las Cruces arroyos
