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Index : Trees
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- 4. The Best Small Trees for Desert Landscapes - Top
- Given the fact that most home owners have limited yard space, small trees that grow no larger than 20 feet, seem to fit best in our urban landscapes. Here are a few of the best small, desert-adapted trees:
Texas Ebony (Pithecellobium flexicaule) in my opinion is the most lush of all our desert trees. It’s a native of the Chihuahuan Desert with beautiful dense, dark green leaflets set on unusual zig-zag stems. The tree also has very attractive light-gray bark. Flowers are insignificant, but after pollination in the spring they develop into striking large, dark brown seed pods that split open to reveal a row of beautiful red seeds. The woody pods are great to use in dried flower arrangements. They persist on the tree for much of the year. Texas Ebony has a mature size of 20 feet and is usually a slow grower, but with more frequent irrigation it will grow considerable faster.
Guajillo (Acacia berlandieri) looks like a small version of the ferny Jacaranda tree, minus the beautiful purple flowers. But Guajillo’s clusters of creamy-white flowers are showy when they appear in mid-Spring and their followed by attractive brown seed pods. But the attribute I like best about this tree is it’s small size, only 15 feet at maturity and it’s wispy and soft fern-like foliage. Usually a low branched or multi-trunk tree, Guajillo grows in a vase-shaped form with an open branching structure that can be easily trained with occasional light pruning. It’s small size and confined root system make it ideal for planting by the patio or in narrow side-yards.
Sweet Acacia (Acacia farnesiana) may be an overused tree in the Tucson area, but there’s a reason for that - it’s just so good! Fast growing, attractive, evergreen with showy and fragrant flowers, Sweet Acacia is also tough-as-nails! Sweet Acacia is broad and spreading with a dense canopy of lacy apple-green compound leaves. The golden puff-ball flowers that cover the tree in early spring are very fragrant and persist on the tree for weeks. Some Sweet Acacia do have a habit of producing some wayward branches when young. This is easily corrected with some pruning to improve their shape while adolescent. As the tree matures the shape becomes rounded and regular to a height and spread of 20 feet.
Narrow-leafed Gimlet (Eucalyptus spathulata) is a multi-trucked tree with attractive reddish bark and ribbon-like gray green leaves. You may have thought all Eucalyptus were huge trees, but not this one! It grows at a moderate rate to an ultimate height of 20 feet. As the name implies, this tree has ribbon-like gray-green leaves and attractive reddish bark - usually multi-trunk. Like its fellow Aussie Eucs, it can take the desert heat and get by with infrequent watering. However, keep in mind that all newly planted trees need frequent irrigation until they become established.
Mexican Bird-of-Paradise (Caesalpinia mexicana) is not to be confused with it’s cousins the Red and Desert Birds-of Paradise. This one is evergreen and although sometimes grown as, a large shrub, it’s easily trained into a small tree. It has rich, dark-green leaves and unlike the yellow and red birds-of paradise, this one is evergreen. Very showy, bright-yellow flower clusters arise from the canopy and bloom nearly year-round. The Mexican bird is a fast grower, maxing out at height of 10 to 12 feet.
Other excellent small trees to consider include: Greg Ash (Fraxinus greggii), Mulga (Acacia aneura), Foothills Palo Verde (Parkinsonia microphylla), Texas Olive (Cordia boissieri), Soapberry (Sapindus drummondii), and Chaste Tree (Vitex agnus-castus)
“Winter Care of Gardens and Landscapes” will be the topic for this week’s garden demonstrations. They will be presented on Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the Pima County Extension Center, 4210 N. Campbell Ave (central); and at 1 p.m. at the Wilmot Library (east), and on Friday at 1 p.m. at the Oro Valley Public Library (northwest).
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161. - Updated: November 13, 2005
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