Arid Zone Trees

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Desert Adapted Evergreens

Unlike regions that experience severe winters, desert landscapes provide color, texture and shade 12 months a year. In the unique climate of the desert southwest winter is an active, growing season when, perhaps more than any other season, people are outdoors. Desert adapted landscape trees exhibit an array of leaf shed characteristics from evergreen to fully deciduous.

Desert evergreens (see list below) maintain the arid character of the overall landscape design while providing color and texture, screening for privacy, shade, and serving as a backdrop for the wide assortment of winter flowering shrubs and color elements that are the trademark of the desert in winter. Trees range in stature from large trees like Olneya tesota and Cercidium "hybrid" to medium sized like Acacia aneura, A. stenophylla and A. microaneura to small tree/large shrub like Caesalpinia mexicana or Sophora secundiflora. Some, like Acacia notabilis, and C. cacalaco, flower during the winter adding a splash of color.

Perhaps their largest contribution of desert adapted ever green is maintaining the shape and general texture of the landscape when other trees have lost their leaves. A variety of leaf colors and textures are available from dense gray-green (A. craspedocarpa), filtered gray-green (A. coreaceae), dense silver-green (A. anuera and A. microaneura), green filtered (A. jennerae) and dark green, filtered (Sophora secundiflora), cascading, weeping dense canopy (A. pendula).

Evergreen can be critical at landscape focal points, entry monuments and outdoor gathering areas. At landscape perimeters, where commercial project are adjacent to residential communities or where a landscape buffer is desired, the need for year round screening can be accomplished with Vauquelinia californica, A. stenophylla, A. aneura, P. flexicaule, or P. mexicanum. Olneya tesota, P. flexicaule, Cercidium "Hybrid" offer large stature and dense canopies that can be used as focal points in the landscape, at entry monuments or near golf course tees and greens. The smaller stature flowering species (Caesalpinia mexicana, C. cacalaco, Sophora secundiflora) can be used as accent trees bringing dark green, dense canopies and abundant winter and spring flowers.

The table below list the botanical and common names of desert adapted evergreen along with some descriptive information about the trees.

 

Botanical Name (a) Tree Size Flower Period Screen Shade
Acacia aneura Medium Spring and Fall Yes Dense
Acacia aroma Small Spring   Filtered
Acacia berlandieri Small Spring   Filtered
Acacia brachystachya  Medium Spring and Fall Yes Filtered
Acacia caven Medium Spring   Filtered
Acacia craspedocarpa Small Spring Yes Filtered
Acacia cowleana Medium Spring   Filtered
Acacia erioloba Medium Spring   Dense`
Acacia gerrardii Medium Spring   Dense
Acacia greggii Small Spring   Filtered
Acacia jennerae Medium Spring and Fall Yes Filtered
Acacia karroo Medium Spring   Dense
Acacia microaneura Medium Spring and Fall Yes Dense
Acacia notabilis Small Winter Yes Dense
Acacia occidentalis Medium Spring   Filtered
Acacia pendula Medium Spring Yes Dense
Acacia rigidula Medium Spring Yes Dense
Acacia schaffneri Medium Spring   Filtered
Acacia smallii Medium Spring   Filtered
Acacia stenophylla Medium Spring and Fall Yes Filtered
Acacia trachycarpa Medium Spring and Fall Yes Filtered
Acacia victoriae Medium Spring Yes Dense
Acacia willardiana Medium Spring and Fall Yes Filtered
Caesalpinia cacalaco Medium Winter Yes Dense
Caesalpinia mexicana Small Spring to Fall Yes Filtered
Caesalpinia palmeri Small Spring   Filtered
Celtis reticulata Medium Spring   Dense
Cercidium floridum Large Spring Yes Dense
Cercidium hybrid "AZT" Large Spring Yes Dense
Cercidium hybrid "Desert Museum" Large Spring Yes Dense
Cercidium microphyllum Large Spring Yes Filtered
Cercidium praecox Large Spring   Filtered
Chilopsis linearis Medium Spring to Fall Yes Dense
Eysenhardtia orthocarpa Medium Summer   Filtered
Eysenhardtia texana Small Spring   Filtered
Faidherbia albida Medium Spring   Filtered
Geoffroea decorticans Large Spring Yes Filtered
Olneya tesota Large Summer Yes Dense
Pithecellobium flexicaule Medium Spring Yes Dense
Pithecellobium mexicanum Medium Spring Yes Filtered
Pithecellobium pallens Medium Spring to Fall   Filtered
Prosopis chilensis Large Spring Yes Dense
Prosopis glandulosa Large Spring   Dense
Prosopis pubescens Medium Spring   Filtered
Prosopis thornless hybrid Large Spring Yes Dense
Prosopis velutina Large Spring Yes Filtered
Psorothamnus spinosus Small Summer Yes Dense
Sophora secundiflora Small Spring Yes Dense
Tecoma garrocha Small Spring to Fall Yes Dense
Vauquelinia californica Medium Spring and Fall Yes  Dense