Ocotillo: Species of the Week

This is part of an ongoing series.

I suppose it’s inevitable that a temperate forest-dweller like me would be amazed by the oddities that grow in the desert.  It’s been two weeks since I returned home to Portland, Oregon from a brief trip to Arizona, and I’m still sighing over the blooms I saw in the desert.

Ocotillo near Black Canyon City, Arizona

One of my favorites is Fouquieria splendens: Ocotillo. I had seen the plant several times before but never in bloom.  I snapped numerous pictures of what must seem as common in the Sonoran desert as Douglas firs in the Pacific Northwest.

Ocotillo is brilliantly adapted to its environment.  It grows easily from seed and for most of the year looks like brown, dead stalks.   But photosynthesizing tissue coating newer stalks converts sunlight into sugars.

Ocotillo has two kinds of leaves.  The first to appear grow into thorns.  Within several days of a rain, secondary leaves sprout from the base of the thorns and cover the plant in green.

Ocotillo leaves and blooms

These facts may be common knowledge in Arizona, but they were news to me:

• Ocotillos may take 60-100 years to reach maturity.  Some might be as old as 200 years.  It’s a strange to think of something that shrubby being as old or older than some of our tall trees in the Pacific Northwest.
• Hummingbirds time their migrations to take advantage of Ocotillo blooms.
• Native peoples ate the blossoms and seeds of Ocotillo.  And both native folks and immigrants have used them to make living fences – a wonderful alternative to barbwire.

So many possibilities for poetry here.

______________________________

I like the music in the word Ocotillo and figured it must have inspired some poetry.  I found a lovely one by Chilean Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel Mistral and another by Little Big Pine called Ocotillo Prayer.

I tried a poem myself and ended up with a nonsensical rhyme.

Do you know of any other poems or songs on Ocotillo?  Leave a comment and let me know about it.

_______________________________

More information on Ocotillo can be found at:

Desert Ecology

The Living Desert