Common Name(s): Blue Palo Verde

Synonym(s): Cercidium floridum

Family: Fabaceae

Native To: Southern Arizona through northern Sinaloa, to Baja California

Native Habitat: Roadsides and arroyo margins

Growth Habit: Medium sized tree

Flowering: March - April

Distinguishing Characteristics: The blue palo verde can be told from other green-trunked trees by its small straight spines at the branching points, the bluish tinge to the green bark and leaves, and its tendency to grow near washes in the wild (as opposed to the Foothills palo verde, which tends to grow on slopes). The Blue palo verde also flowers earlier than the Foothills palo verde. Both are found throughout the Tucson basin. Leaves of the palo verdes are small, compound, and drought deciduous, only reappearing again after the summer rains start.

Natural History and Cultivation Notes: As is true of many of the plants that make up the Sonoran Desert flora in the Tucson area, the blue Palo Verde is thought to have arrived relatively recently, approximately 4240 years ago, according to pack-rat midden evidence. Before that time, communities such as juniper woodland came and went in the climatic cycles associated with the Ice Ages. The trees are profuse bloomers, densely clothed in bright yellow flowers for a few weeks in late spring. Bees are the most common pollinators, including the honeybee, itself a far more recent introduction to the desert, having arrived to the New World with Europeans.

Ethnobotany: The seeds, flowers and immature fruits (pods) were all eaten by local peoples.

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