Overview
A desert is generally a free area of landscape where little precipitation come and consequently , life conditions are uncongenial for plants and animal sprightliness . Plants and animals that live in the deserts have evolved to endure rough conditions , scarce water and destitute landscape painting . Some desert habitat plant life are light survive , only springing up to brighten the landscape only when the rain falls . Since desert condition are so severe , the plants that live there need to have adaptation to recompense for lack of water . Many desert plants like cacti in Americas are able to absorb and store water , letting them come through recollective period of drought whereas other flora like Bush conserve water by growing few leaves or by cause large root systems to gather water . There are over 1000 desert industrial plant species , most of which can be grown successfully in our home landscape and gardens .
Types Of Desert Plants
1. Desert Lily (Hesperocallis undulate)
Desert lily also referred to asAjo ( garlic ) lilyby the Spanish because of the bulb ’s sapidity , has a deep bulb that sends up a stem in former spring that can be 1 to 4 feet high . The basal leave-taking are ordinarily blue - green in color , long , strap - like and close down along the midplane with wavy margins . The leaves have parallel vein typically liliopsid . The shoulder strap - like basal leaves are typically 8 to 20 inch long and 1.5 to 2.5 inches wide . The bulbs of desert lily can remain in the basis for several geezerhood , waiting for enough moisture to emerge .
Desert lilies have been observe to be in rosiness in at least one twelvemonth in the months of December to May . However , the actual bloom duration in a apply year can be as unforesightful as two hebdomad in desiccant years . Desert lilies are line up in the desert areas of southwesterly North America , in Northwestern Mexico , California and Sonoran desert habitat .
2. Wild Heliotrope (Heliotropium curassavicum)
Wild bloodstone is a variable annual herbaceous plant growing decumbent to rear its branching or unbranched stem 15 to 80 centimeters in duration . It is usually coat in balmy or buckram glandular hairsbreadth which some citizenry witness foul - smelling when touch . The leaf are up to 10 to 15 centimeters long and are divided into several lobed leaflets , sometimes intricately . The flower of this plant is just about one centimeter long and is normally drear but can be white or varying dark glasses of lavender or purpleness .
Wild bloodstone can procreate by seed or can develop from shoots ( rhizomes ) and bud . Once the works has establish itself in an area , seed germination is of less grandness and further growth is through the spreading of shoots and bud .
3. California poppy (Golden poppy)
The California poppy also referred to asgolden poppy , California sunlight or loving cup of goldis a flowering coinage native to the United States and Mexico . It is in general consider as an yearly plants and it typically blossom in the recent summertime month . It also has feathery gray - fleeceable foliation with four - petaled flowers , borne on stems 20 to 30 cm long . The flowers are usually pale yellow , orange or ointment in the wild , but cultivated varieties are usable in blank , red and pink shade .
The plant can grow up to 1.5 feet in height and the works ’s flower maintains a inviolable bond with the sun , opening mid - break of day and closing again in the evening , or at cloudy detail during the day .
Also Read : Difference Between Agave And Aloe Vera
4. Sand Verbena (Wild Lantana)
The plant life bears attractive neatly rounded heads of small , bright pink flowers . The individual flowers have no petal rather ; they are composed of yellow bracts form a cornet - shaped calyx about the stamens . It bears a pocket-sized , winded yield . brusque embarrassing hair embrace both the inch - long , ellipse , overweight leave of absence and many - branched stems . This plant is native to the west slide of North America , from southern California to the Canada - United States border .
5. Saguaro Cactus (Carnegiea gigantea)
Saguarois the orotund cactus in the world . It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona , the Mexican commonwealth of Sonora and the Whipple mountains and Imperial county area of California . The saguaro cactus is a tree - like cactus which can produce up to 40 feet and 2 feet wide . It grows in tall pillar and sprouts arms at the years of 75 . The peel of the Saguaro is thick , waxy , clean jet and serrated into ridge . The ridge allow the cactus to flesh out like an accordion during rainy seasons to defend more water . Long , pointy spikes run down the ridges . The cactus has notably shallow roots ; there is a chief root that reaches up to 2 - 3 feet deep while the other antecedent only extended about a animal foot deep though they winnow out far and full .
The Carnegiea gigantea has toll - mold efflorescence which are declamatory , white and fragrant . They are typically 3 inches wide and bloom during the spring . The blossom are pollinated by bats , Bronx cheer and insects that feed on the ambrosia . The yield of the saguaro is cylindric , scaly and about 2 - 3 inches long . The color changes from green to red and split overt during the summer when ripe . The flesh of the fruit is bright , voluptuous Red River and contain many black source .
Also Read : Different Types of Euphorbia Plants
6. Cholla Cactus (Jumping cholla)
The chollas are aboriginal to the American Southwest in deserts and arid zones . They are compose of cylindric stems arranged in section and clear with inch long wicked spines . The spines are covered in a newspaper - like sheath which may be very coloured and attractive . The plant may be a creeper , bush or tree . Sizes alter from 3 to 15 feet in height . flower are green or orange , look upon coinage and flower April through June .
7. Joshua Tree (Yucca Brevifolia)
Joshua tree , the turgid of the yucca , is a easy - grow , upright evergreen tree with a stout trunk , heavy branches and candid , rounded canopy . Joshua trees are such a outstanding feature of the desert landscape that California even has a national park named for them .
Joshua tree usually has a undivided trunk and grows between 4 and 9 foot tall before branch . Branches cease in clump of spiky leave-taking and white , rounded flower . The beat leaves hang on the plant covering the trunk and shank . In spring , the works bears beautiful greenish - white flowers that are pollinated by a moth . Joshua tree diagram are most commonly found in the Mojave Desert in the southwest United States .
8. Mesquite Tree (Prosopis glandulosa)
The Mesquite tree diagram is one of the most common trees of the Southwestern United States and parts of Mexico . It is a member of the legume kin of flora which admit peanut , alfalfa , clover and bonce . Mesquite trees may have one or multiple automobile trunk with a pack of branches with each assuming its own classifiable form with thorn on their small-scale offset . The leave of absence of this Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree are narrow , pointed and are 2 to 3 inches long . The leaflets of this tree are bipinnate with a light green to dismal hue that cast a Light Within to deep shade , depending on the species .
mesquit shed their parting in the wintertime but will bloom from the spring into summer , bearing small frothy - looking clusters referred to as ‘ ’ catkins ’’ of tiny , five - petalled , pale immature or xanthous flowers , which entice legion pollinating dirt ball . The flowers form a flat pod of beans 2 to 6 inches long . mesquit trees have a retentive taproot that they use to absorb enough moisture from the deep underground to keep them live . This feature enables the mesquite to last in the desert .
9. Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens)
Ocotillo mature throughout the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts from southerly California to western Texas and Confederate States of America into Mexico . It is one of the light flora to place in the desert . They are a large bush with tenacious cane - like unbranched spiny halt that grow from a brusk trunk . The stems of this plant are leafless most of the sentence . But , after a significant rainfall , the plant will be cover with clustering of narrow ellipse leaves about 2 inches long . The leaves stay on the plant until the soil dries out and then they fall off .
Ocotillos produce clump of lustrous red bloom at their stem , which explain the flora ’s name . Ocotillo means ‘ ’ little flashlight ’’ in Spanish . works blossom once in the leap from March through June depending on latitude then periodically in reaction to rain during the summer .
10. Barrel Cactus (Compass Barrel)
Barrel cactus is native to the red-hot , dry North American desert . It has a cylindric shape with vertical rib or plait . This type of cactus averagely measure more than 5 inches across and is less than 10 times as tall as it is wide . In the give and summertime , typically between April and September , brightly colored flowers ( yellow / flushed ) together with a lily-livered fruit emerge in a ring around the top of the stem .
11. Brittle Bush ( Encelia farinosa)
Brittle bush also mention to asinciensois a common desert shrub of northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States . Brittlebush get its name from the plant ’s characteristic behavior during the long , dry time of year of the deserts . Without water , the leaves drop , resulting in a bunch of barren branches that are easily break or brickly . It grow up to 150 cm , the flora can reach height of 1 meter or more , but typically it is a smaller , compact , round bush .
The plant has a shallow taproot and numerous sidelong root that hold back in the rocky desert ground for the next rain , before leaf go forth out once again and producing another flare-up of jaundiced flowers . The beautiful disk - shaped flowers rise several inches above the mound clustering of leafage , giving the semblance of a layer of yellow color float above gray - green plant .
12. Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata)
The creosote bush also referred to asLarrea tridentatais a medium - sized evergreen plant shrub . It has humble bespeak green leave of absence with a waxy coating . It is unremarkably less than 4 foot high , but can grow to 12 - foot heights with abundant water system . These leaf have adapted to conserve water and survive in high spirits temperatures . Inch - wide twisted , icteric petals bloom of youth from February - August . After the Creosote blooms , the blossom turns into a little white bleary fruit ejection seat that has 5 seeds . Creosote also secretes lots of waxy , resinous compound which cake the leaves and to some extent the base , make them appear lacquered .
13. Desert Purple Sage (Salvia dorrii)
Desert purple salvia plant is a herbaceous recurrent native to mountain area in the western United States and northwestern Arizona . The green - gray leaves are narrow and lanced - form , are tapered at the base and rounded at the tip and have a smooth and circular margin . The leaves of this shrub also have an intense but pleasant , gently intoxicating minty aroma , with the odour relinquish when the foliation is handled or crushed . The flush bunch is made up of spike - like cluster of numerous purple flowers that are bilateral .
14. Desert Willow Tree (Chilopsis linearis)
The desert willow tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree also referred to as Bow willow is a native Texas Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree or bush that resemble the willow but is n’t actually part of the willow tree family . It is unremarkably multi - trunked or down fork . Desert willow barque is smooth when young but develop jolting crevice as it ages . White lenticels are detectable on new barque or new growth . The flush of this plant are dark pink or purple , often with white or icteric and royal streak within the throat . The catapult - like flower are borne in terminal raceme . The flowers are replaced by slender seedpod , 6 - 10 inches long , which remain dangling from the branch .
Also Read : Different Types of Aloe Vera plant
15. Foxtail Agave (Lion’s tail)
Foxtail Agave is an evergreen plant succulent that forms large stem canker of attractive thornless leafage atop a hardy stalk that can grow up to 4 feet magniloquent . The leaf are yellowish - immature , low-spirited - jet to gray - green up to 28 inches recollective and up to 6 inches wide . The plant bears greenish - yellow flowers which give manner to sow pods and many new plantlets . The stem canker dies after flowing , but produces offsets around the base , often forming a colony of rosettes . After reaching the heights of 4 - 10 ft , it reflexes back towards the priming coat before arching up again like a Charles James Fox rear .
False Sisal
The false sisal is a dramatic flora that grow five foot tall and wide . It will get much larger to about ten foot in frost - innocent localisation . This American aloe is known for its bright immature , long foliation that forms a tight , symmetric stem canker . Its fleshy leaves go around from the center of the flora and have minor teeth along the tolerance . This works produce many offsets for breeding and propagation . Once in its lifespan , in late crepuscle or early wintertime , it develops a ten- to twelve - foot flower angry walk with many branches that support light-green - yellow bloom .
Twin-flowered Agave
This American aloe has obtuse , symmetrical foliage that raise in a rosette produce about a hundred or more upright , minute , coloured gullible leaves . The thin leaf grow to two to three animal foot improbable with sharp edges and smooth margin on a level , gray terminal spine . Some plants have milky fibers growing along the foliage sharpness while others are character - less . Its blossom stalking grows nine to twelve feet high with two flowering candelabra staunch . The flowers are yellowish with a reddish - purple coloring at the base . After the plant grow its majestic bloom at about ten years or so , it dies . This plant is more solitary and does not bring on set-back like the other agave species .
Banana Yucca
The plant rise slowly to three to five feet marvelous and panoptic with big , strap - like , dark - green foliage that is stiff , erect , sharply pointed , and arrange spirally at the base of its stem . This plant also produces livid fibers along its leaf margin that incline to curl on the plant life . The fibers from its leaves can be soaked and used to make string or rope . In spring , the plant sends up tall bloom stalks that come from a center field whorl of leaves . The flowers are creamy ashen , bell - shape and appear in duncish bunch . Its young efflorescence are also comestible and smack like edible asparagus . After flowering , the plant get banana tree - comparable fruit that hold plane , opprobrious seeds . When the yield is baked , is has a flavor similar to potatoes . Use it as a low - grow accent works in desert landscape or as a specimen planting . It can also be used as a focal plant in front of tall walls and foundations because of its picturesque form and growth wont .
Cape Aloe
Cape aloe reaches heights of ten feet or more , with a three- to four - foot spread . It forms a dense clump of bluish - green , overweight , succulent leaves . The foliage is point at the tip and edged with sharp teeth along the margins . The tight - growing industrial plant develops lock of new foliage from its plaza . Older leaves dry and may leave a half-slip of growth on the stem . In late wintertime to early leap , it grow a large , candelabra - like , exquisite blossom headland . Each spike obligate colorful orange to red or yellow blossoms . The flush draw Bronx cheer , bees , and butterflies .
Coastal Century Plant
The industrial plant has attractive , overweight , dark - green , leaves with sharp , serrated , brown dentition along its edges and a sorry reddish - chocolate-brown terminal spine . It form a tight rosette and grows three human foot tall and four to five feet panoptic . After ten years or more , it produce a tall , branch flower stalk that is seven to twelve feet tall or more , and resemble an edible asparagus . The flowering stem produce a greenish rosiness with purple bracts in late summer through evenfall . This agave farm many get-go in its lifetime .
