Transcript desert & mountains - University of San Diego Home Pages

DESERT &
MOUNTAINS
Created By:
Amparo De Mollinedo
Andrea Hernandez
Carlos Jusdado
LOW DESERT SCRUB
CREOSOTE BUSH
The most widely distributed shrub in the North American deserts
-Shiny, waxy, dark green leaves and small yellow flowers
-Can pull water out of extremely dry soil
-Indians utilized it for firewood, glue, tea, and a general antiseptic
BURROWEED
A small shrub that is widely distributed in the Mojave & Sonoran Deserts
-Small, deeply-toothed light-gray leaves that are green just in spring
-Most leaves are shed during the long dry periods revealing white,
densely branched stems
OCOTILLO
One of the most conspcuous and unusual desert shrubs
-Long, unbranched, spiny stems radiate upward from the a single base
-Stems can reach 20 feet in length
-Red flowers at their tips provide crucial nectar for hummingbirds
-Small green leaves are produced quickly after rain showers, but are
shed soon after the soil dries (this cycle may occur several times a year)
BRITTLE-BUSH
-Very brittle stems bearing silvery leaves and yellow, daisy-like flowers
-The leaves produce a water soluble chemical that act as a germination
inhibitor, that prevent annuals from growing around the plant’s perimeter
-Indians utilize the resin from its woody stems as a chewing gum, incense,
varnish, and as a pain reliever
CHUPEROSA
- Appears throughout desert habitats at lower elevations
- Often leafless when limited rainfall, but stems can photsynthesize
- Grey-green stems and leaves with tubular red flowers to attract
hummingbirds responsible for their pollination
JOJOBA
- Medium-sized shrub found on dry
rocky slopes at lower elevations
- Gray-green leathery leaves are
distinctly-vertically oriented
- Separate male and female plants
- Greenish flowers; brown fruit (similar
to an acorn) were used to make a
coffee-like beverage by Natives and
early Californians
- Oil from seeds has a commercial use
(thermally-stable and lubricating)
MOJAVE YUCCA
- On dry rocky slopes and mesas from
the coast to Colorado desert
- Rigid, long green leaves armed with
sharp spines at their tips (called
Spanish bayonet)
- Distinct “trunks” grow up to 12 feet
- Cream-colored flowers borne in
clusters at ends of trunk
- This long-lived species of yucca can
flower many times, but not each year
- Fibers that curl off of the leaf
margins were used by Natives to
make baskets, cloth, rope, thread
- The fruits were eaten raw, flower
heads & stems were cooked, and
fleshy roots and stems used to make
soap
DESERT PRICKLY PEAR
-Stems are flattened, leafless pads with long white spines
-Cactus is short, multibranched, and bears yellow flowers and red fruit
BEAVERTAIL CACTUS
-Often confused with the desert prickly pear cactus
-Spines are absent, but has areoles with small tufts of sharp bristles
-The characteristic shape of the cactus pad that gives this species its name
-This cactus produces magenta flowers in late spring and early summer
JUMPING CHOLLA
-Characterized by its distinctly erect trunk
-Short branches and numerous spines
-The easily-detached stems fall to the
ground where they can take root
-Also called “teddy bear” cholla because of
its brown color and fuzzy-looking spines.
SILVER CHOLLA
- Intricately branched
- Found in Mojave and Colorado
Deserts in sandy or gravelly soils
between 1,000 and 4,000 ft
- Slender medium-green stems
with pale sparsely scattered
spines, hard to detach
- Yellow/bronze flowers in spring
DESERT BARREL CACTUS
- Large, single-stem round cactus
with lengthwise “ribs”
- Attains height of 3 – 4 ft and
1 ft in diameter
- (Larger than the coastal species)
- Long spines (up to 6 in long)
- Yellow flowers at the top of the
cactus in spring
- Common at lower elevations on
rocky or gravelly hillsides
- Natives used the hollowed barrel
as a cooking pot
DESERT WASH
PALO VERDE
- Small-to-medium tree common along washes; lebume family
- Green bark can photosynthesize when the tree is leafless in dry season
- Covered with bright yellow flowers in spring
- Bi-pinnate leaves and elongated seed pods
SMOKE TREE
- Small tree of sandy desert
washes at lower elevations
- Intricate, spiny-tipped branches
- Leaves absent most of the year,
so grey-green bark carries on
most photosynthesis
- Masses of small, purple pea-like
flowers cover it in early summer
MESQUITE
- Most important plant to Southwest Natives; beans were ground in meals
and wood used for housing, burning, bows and arrows, basketry
- Narrow bipinnately compound leaves
- Extremely deep root systems are able to reach water year-round
IRONWOOD
- Medium-sized, legume tree found in desert washes with mesquite and
catclaw
- It has a simple pinnate, bluish leaf, elongate seed pods, and scaly bark
- Small rose-colored flowers in spring
- Extremely hard wood good for carvings, tool handles and arrowheads
DESERT WILLOW
- Elongated, willow-like leaves, but it is neither a willow nor a legume,
but rather a member of the tropical Bignonia family
- Found in the washes with
mesquite and catclaw
- Different from other desert
shrubs as it is leafless and
dormant in winter
- Pink flowers look like those
of snapdragons
- Seeds in long, silky pods
- Wood used for bows & arrows
CATCLAW
- One of several deeply-rooted shrubs/trees of the legume family found in
sandy washes throughout the deserts of North America
- Small, bi-pinnate leaves are shed in winter, recurved (“catclaw”) spines
- Yellow flowers in late spring;
seeds (in pods ~3 in long) are food
for many animals
MOUNTAINS
BLACK OAK
- This tall (~75 feet) tree forms a black-oak woodland at lower elevations, but
is mixed with conifers at higher elevations
- Unlike “live oaks,” the large (~4-8 inch) leaves of this oak are shed in winter
- Acorns take two years to mature
- Seriously depleted as fuel for gold smelters
JEFFREY PINE
- Found from Oregon to Baja California, on well drained moist soils at
Intermediate elevations (4,000 to 9,000 ft)
- Attains 100 to 180 ft height and from 4 to 6 ft in diameter
- Reddish-brown bark, deeply furrowed, irregular plates
- Dense blue-green needles in bundles of three, 5 to 8 in long
- Medium-size cones about 7 in long; scales have inward curved pickles
- Natives made baskets out of small roots; Wood is commercially valuable
SUGAR PINE
- Cones attain 2ft long 5 in
wide, most 16 long
- Scales are brown-black
inside with yellow-brown tip
- Wood important for industry
- Seeds eaten by the Indians
-
From Oregon into Baja California
From the coast to 10,000ft
Cool slopes and canyons in mixed stands
Grow to about 200 ft high and 3 to 6 ft wide
Straight trunk and crown tends to flatten
Bark of young trees is grey but turns reddishbrown when older
- Blue-green slender needles 3 in long
COULTER PINE
- Central California to northern Baja
California
- In southern California found in warm
slopes and ridges with oaks, incense
cedar, yellow pine…
- Resembles Digger pine but no
branched trunk, larger cones
- Cones: tip of scale darker than the
base *
- Seeds were a stale food for Indians
Jeffrey Pine
Sugar Pine
Coulter Pine
INCENSE CEDAR
-
From 1,500 to 8,000 ft from Southern Oregon to northern Baja California
Shady, cool northern and eastern slopes in mixed stands
Up to 90 ft tall and a trunk of up to 4 ft in diameter
Cinnamon-brown bark 2 to 3 in thick at base appears furrowed and ridged
- Dark-green scale-like leaves arranged in pairs arranged in pairs
- Tips of branches flattened , small cones in 3 pairs of scales mature in 1
season. Reddish wood for pencils
CYPRUS
Cones
- Sugar Pine
- Coulter Pine
- Jeffrey Pine
- Giant sequioa
- Cyprus
- Incense Cedar
Cones
- Sugar Pine
Coulter Pine
Jeffrey Pine
Giant sequioa
Cuyamaca Incense
Cyperus
Cedar