Desert Willow, Chilopsis linearis

Comments: The wood is used for fence posts and fuel, and baskets are woven from the twigs. The flowers make good honey and the seeds attract birds.

Culture: The species, linearis, and its varieties, grow along arid desert washes or dry arroyos from Texas to California.

Size: Shrub or slender tree to 30 ft. with leaning trunks.

Growth Rate: Rapid

Bark: Smooth and brown on young trunks, dark brown to black later and breaking into broad ridges with small scales, fissures irregular and rather deep.

Leaves: Deciduous, opposite or alternate, linear to lanceeolate, entire, thin, 4-12 inches long, average length 3-5 inches, ¼-1/3 inch wide, attenuate long pointed at the ends, pubescent or glabrous, rather pale green on both sides, sometimes sticky; petiole short or none, almost winged by the leaf base.

Fall Color: Yellow

Flower: Mostly May-June, but blooming sporadically after rains in other months, showy, perfect, in short panicles 2-4 in. long; light purple to white.

Fruit: Capsule borne on stout peduncles ½-1 in. long.

Pests: None