Since I have started writing blog posts I have enjoyed learning special and interesting facts about the plants and trees that we have in our yard and let me tell you, the Palo Verde does not disappoint on the fascinating facts.

Our Desert Willow tree and Palo Verde tree are planted near each other. When I was working on taking photos for the blog post I did on the Desert Willow I started looking at our Palo Verde tree. It still had a few blossoms on it so I took a few pictures and I was studying its seed pods and admiring its multiple trunks. Our very first tree in that location was a Blue Palo Verde. I planted it at the same time as the Desert Willow when we first moved in 17 years ago. It was a beautiful tree. It also had multiple trunks and the most amazing blueish-greenish trunk and leaves. It grew pretty rapidly but when we had a bad wind storm the tree split in half. That is a downside to trees with multiple trunks. It was beyond repair and had to be taken out. I was heartbroken because I loved that tree. I loved the bright yellow flowers that blanketed the entire tree in the spring and I loved its unique bark and leaf color.

I have yet to find another Blue Palo Verde tree all these years later but that same year our precious tree broke, I did find a Green Palo Verde. Instead of blue/green color, the new tree has a vibrant, bright green trunk, branches and leaves. This new tree was a single trunk; I didn’t want to deal with another multi-trunk tree and I planted it in the fall. Well, it froze over the winter and I was really disappointed. Luckily I was slow in my garden clean-up that spring and did not get around to taking it out right away and procrastination paid off this time. The tree came back but as a multi-trunk tree. It is huge now and I love it. I do keep it trimmed to keep as much weight off the branches as I can. I hope after all these years it is strong enough to withstand the winds and not crack down the center as our first tree did.

Now that you know the history of our tree and how much I love it I want to share an interesting fact about Palo Verde trees. While I was working on the Desert Willow post I was curious if there was anything special or interesting about Palo Verde trees and what I stumbled on has fascinated me ever since I read it. Before we get to this special piece of information, let’s take a step back and refresh our memories of what photosynthesis is.

What is Photosynthesis Again?

Photosynthesis is when plants use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. This transformation is when the plant takes in carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil. The plant converts the water into oxygen that is released back into the air and converts carbon dioxide into glucose that is the energy for the plant to use. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment (chlorophyll) in leaves. Plants with colored leaves also have the ability to photosynthesize because they do have some green chlorophyll but the green chlorophyll is masked by other pigments called carotenoids (yellow, orange and red) and anthocyanins (blue, violet and red). Chlorophyll is so important because it absorbs the energy from the light and stores it for the photosynthesis process to begin.

Keep the importance of the color green in mind while we explore one more fact about trees before we move on to what I believe to be one of the most interesting facts I have come across regarding plants.

What is the Purpose of Bark?

Well the most obvious and simple explanation is that it protects the tree. The bark or epidermis of the tree protects it from the outside world keeping it safe from insects, fungi, wind, sun, moisture and drought. A tree simply can not survive without its outer protective layer. Usually bark’s only purpose is to protect the tree.

So What is This Interesting Fact?

Finally I get to tell you, did I do enough to lead up to it? Unlike other trees, the Palo Verde is able to drop all of its leaves in extreme drought and photosynthesize from its green bark to keep the tree alive. This allows the tree to conserve energy to only the most important part of the tree.

I am just in awe that this trees bark can help keep it alive not in just protecting it from the outside elements but to help the tree photosynthesize and make food for the tree to stay alive in extreme weather.

Palo Verde tree bark is not brown, rough and rigid but green, smooth and full of chlorophyll!

Other Interesting Facts

Palo Verde is Spanish for “green stick.”

There are only a few varieties of Palo Verde. 

• The Blue Palo Verde prefers to grow along washes in southern California, Arizona and northwestern Mexico.
• The Foothills Palo Verde prefers to grow along the rocky foothills of the Sonoran Desert.  
• About thirty years ago, the Desert Museum Palo Verde was named after the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum when employees noticed Palo Verdes growing in the area lacked thorns. This is  the only thornless variety.
• Border Palo Verde only grow in southeastern Texas.
• Mexican Palo Verde grow southwestern Arizona to Texas and to Florida.

A few other interesting facts about the Palo Verde tree is that it serves as a nurse plant for saguaro cacti. The Palo Verde provides a microhabitat with its canopy by providing shade in the summer and warmth in the winter protecting the slow growing, long lived cacti.

Another interesting fact is that the Palo Verde tree can live up to 100 – 400 years! That is simply amazing to me.

The seed pods are edible! I guess you can eat them when the seed pod is green and tender. The flavor is supposed to be a little sweet and you eat them as you would peas or edamame. The Seri Native Americans enjoy the seeds fresh, toasted or ground as flour. The Tohono O-oodham Native Americans prefer to eat the seeds fresh. I have yet to give the seeds a try because I have just learned about this and it is currently winter and all the seeds are dry. I am interested and may give the seeds a nibble this coming spring to see what they are like. The flowers are edible also and enjoyed in salads.

Quick Facts:

Pros and Cons of the Desert Willow Tree:

• Pros
  • Very drought tolerant, very little water is needed to keep this tree happy.
  • Hummingbirds, bees and butterflies love this tree and its blossoms.
  • It has attractive, showy, bright yellow blossoms.
  • It has photosynthesizing trunks and branches to help the tree during times of drought.
  • The Desert Museum Palo Verde does not have thorns.
  • It is very low maintenance. I only trim it in the winter, maybe every other year. I trim mine because I like to see the trunks, for ease of cleaning underneath it and to keep as much weight off the trunks as possible to prevent them from breaking. Trimming is a personal choice, not a necessity.
  • They are moderately fast growing.
• Cons
  • They are messy. Palo Verde are heavy bloomers so when all those beautiful, showy flowers dry out and die they will be all over the yard. I do not recommend planting cactus around them because the dried flowers really get stuck in the cactus thorns.

How to Propagate a Palo Verde Tree:

As I have mentioned in my article about Mesquite trees and Desert Willow trees, trees that have a ton of easy to gather seed pods make it too tempting to give propagation a try. The Palo Verde have very easy seed pods to gather and each pod will have a few seeds to try growing. Luckily, I have great luck propagating from these seeds.

I hope I have introduced you to this unique and special tree in a way that encourages you to give growing one a try. These trees will add interest to your garden and provide shelter and food for many birds, butterflies and bees.

Happy desert gardening!

Joy Simper has a full time job as a home schooling stay at home mom. She is the one that holds the house and yard together and keeps the kids in line. She enjoys gardening, including seed starting and propagating plants.