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
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