One of the strangest desert plants is the ocotillo - I don't know if it is a tree or a bush (the dictionary refers to it both ways). Most of the year it looks like a bundle of dead brown sticks poked into the ground. But in the springtime it comes into its glory.
You'll notice these pictures are taken in someones front yard. It is difficult to find a plant where the flowers are at a level I can photograph them. Mostly the flowers are on the very tips of the stalks which are six to nine feet tall. The cultivated plants are bushier and have stalks of varying lengths.
The roundish leaves grow right out of the thorny stems - no branches at all. They remind me of dichondra (on a stick!) and are very green and lush.
The multiple blossoms form a plume, somewhat like cannas. Everything is very short lived except the stalks, when the temperatures go up, the leaves and flowers don't last and all that is left are those brown sticks.
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