Desert Plants

 

Juniper – Junipers are small trees that range from 10-15 feet tall.

Mormon Tea- Mormon Tea is a shrub that grows to a height of 4 feet and is made of green branches. It was named for Mormon settlers who would boil the leaves and drink the tea. Mormon Tea is also used as a tonic since it contains ephedrine-related alkaloid ingredients.

 

Pinion Pine – The pinion is well-known for its pine nuts, which are fun to pick and delicious to eat. Pinions have been used by the native cultures in the area for hundreds of years and are still gathered by families each autumn.

 

Prickly Pear Cactus – Prickly Pear cactus have green, flat “pads” covered with spines. The fruit of the prickly pear is considered a vegetable and can help regulate blood sugar.

 

Tumbleweed – Tumbleweeds are also known as Russian Thistle. Appearing as though a shell of a shrub, tumbleweeds hop and blow across the desert, dispersing seeds. The seeds stay hidden under the ground until spring when they germinate, flower, and by autumn, dry out to create the typical tumbleweed you see blowing across the ground.

 

Greasewood – Greasewood are shrubs that can average between 3 and 7 feet in height. Covered in thorns, the greasewood produces rose colored male flowers and greenish female flowers.

 

Yucca – The yucca plant has long, sharp leaves that can grow up to 40 inches long and 1-2 inches wide.

 

Cottonwoods – Cottonwoods are also known as water trees. They grow to 50-60 feet with an average trunk size of 3 feet in diameter. In the spring, it shoots off fluffy white tufts that carry seeds to the ground.

 

Sagebrush – The shrub dotting the deserts is sagebrush. Each shrub can produce up to one million seeds.

 

Cliffrose – Cliffrose is a many-branched shrub that reaches up to 8 feet. The flowers are white and average an inch in width and have 5 petals.

 

Datura Plant – The Datura is a plant with long grayish green leaves and large white flowers. This plant is often used in Native ceremonies for its hallucinogenic properties.