| Flood waters don’t bother me because my limber branches can ride in the water without my roots being torn from the soil. I like to grow in thickets along the edge of the river or streams. I am one of the most common riparian shrubs in New Mexico. I can grow into a 15-foot (5-meter) tall tree, but mostly I appear as a small shrub. My male flowers grow in tight, dense clusters called catkins. My female catkins have loosely arranged flowers that produce seeds with hairy filaments that are easily distributed by the wind. My long, lance-shaped, minutely toothed leaves are silvery early in the summer because of fine hairs. As the hair wears off I look more dull grayish green. Wildlife such as elk and beaver like to eat my branches. Like other members of the Salicaceae family, I have bark from which tea can be brewed and used to relieve pain. |
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| I am one of the most common small trees in New Mexico. I like to live in dry rocky plains, hills and mountains where I often grow with pinyon pine. I look brushy since my many branches grow from an underground trunk. Tiny scale-like leaves cover my twigs. My sometimes frosty-looking fruit appears to be dark blue to copper berries, but they are really cones. Birds and mammals, especially bear, like to eat my cones. My leaves, twigs, berries and bark smell wonderfully pungent. Navajos have used my bark for clothes, blankets and shoes. I do not grow in areas that flood or have high water tables, so the foothills, not the bosque, are my more common home. |
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| Look closely: my deep blue-violet flowers, from which I get my name, have only one petal. Stamens covered with bright yellow pollen extend beyond the petal. My flowers are grouped together in long, dense clusters at the end of my branches. I am a woody plant that usually grows about 6 feet (2 meters) tall. A member of the pea family, I have compound leaves with many opposite oval leaflets that are sometimes mistaken for locust leaves (I am not a locust!). I grow in moist, sandy soil near levees and places where water is close to the surface. My many branches make nice places for bird nests. |
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| Red berries hang from my thorny stems during the summer and attract birds. I look like a mound of woody stems, with small narrow leaves in clusters on short spiky branches. In the winter I provide a little greenery. My early flowers are green lavender and shaped like tiny funnels and attract insects. Besides the berries, birds use me for cover and protected roosts at night. Native Americans used me for food: my slightly bitter, juicy berries were eaten raw or prepared as a sauce. |
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| A common member of the cactus family, I like the sandy soils of the bosque. Often I am planted as an ornamental and have escaped to grow there. Livestock avoid eating me, leaving me alone to grow into huge clumps. My stems are flattened pods, and what would be leaves on other plants are sharp prickly spines that grow in a pattern. My fruits are large and red to purple, juicy, and pear-shaped, containing many seeds. Wildlife and many people eat them. Sometimes the fruit is made into jelly. It is evident when coyote eat me: their poop is the same red color and full of my seeds. That is how I spread from place to place. In the bosque I may have bright yellow flowers that all kinds of pollinators visit. |
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