| A majestic landmark species of the bosque, my trunk can reach 5 feet (1.5 meters) in diameter. My heart-shaped leaves have toothed edges. In autumn they turn yellow making the bosque appear as a river of gold. You can tell my sex in the spring. Male trees have red flowers that form conspicuous long clusters, or catkins, that produce pollen. The female flowers are hard to spot until they develop grape-like clusters of seed pods, or tetones. Having evolved along the Rio Grande, I take advantage of high spring water runoff. In the late spring my seed capsules pop open and billions of minute cottony down-covered seeds are carried into the sky by wind. To grow they must land on moist, bare soil where they can receive a full day’s sunlight. Once I sprout, my roots must keep in contact with the moist soil as the water recedes and the water table drops. |
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| I grow as an erect spreading shrub that can reach 10 feet or 3 meters tall. I have a smooth, whitish-green bark that makes me distinctive even in the winter when I have no leaves. My bright green oval-shaped leaves are arranged oppositely on my twigs. My flowers bloom in the spring before my leaves emerge. Although my small flowers have no petals, the stamens give the flowers a yellowish cast. Once pollinated, my flowers mature to small blue-black olive-shaped fruits that are attractive to birds. I am native to the bosque and like both dry and moist soils. My roots can grow over ten feet or 3 meter deep. My hard wood has been used by Native Americans for digging sticks and for making prayer sticks. |
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| I am a spiny shrub or small tree with slender branches. My fruit look like screws. Each bean is coiled in a spiral with the same diameter. My compound leaves have four to eight pairs of small oval leaflets. My flowers are yellow to yellow-green or pale green in color with anthers ending in red glands. My fruit is sweet to taste and is eaten by humans, coyotes, and roadrunners. I have spines or thorns along my stems. My thorns are sometimes used by a bird called a loggerhead shrike as a place to store grasshoppers or lizards it plans to eat later. I grow well in the desert washes and dry streams that sometimes flow into the Rio Grande. |
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