One of the most bizarre-looking plants found along this trail is the ocotillo. At first glance, ocotillo (pronounced “Oh-co-TEE-yo”) looks like a tall, spindly shrub that died - a cluster of drab, gray stalks covered in sharp half inch spines, and no obvious signs of life like leaves along the branches. This bare bones appearance is actually part of ocotillo’s desert survival strategy. Plants lose most of their water through their leaves during photosynthesis. Ocotillo and several other desert plants have adapted to desert life by moving the photosynthesis into their stems. This strategy of photosynthesis is not as efficient or as productive as in typical plants, but the plants do save a lot of water and that is the principal issue for a desert dweller. Leaves are either not produced, or only produced during wet times of the year when the water losses are affordable to the plant.
The real surprise though is in the spring when seemingly “dead stalks” of ocotillo burst into bloom. Slender clusters of bright red orange, tubular flowers form at the ends of the stalks, and in areas with abundant ocotillo plants it can look like a red haze is hanging just above the plants from a distance! Ocotillo are often mistaken for cactus, but in fact they are a member of a small, unrelated family of primarily South American plants, of which it is the northernmost representative.
The real surprise though is in the spring when seemingly “dead stalks” of ocotillo burst into bloom. Slender clusters of bright red orange, tubular flowers form at the ends of the stalks, and in areas with abundant ocotillo plants it can look like a red haze is hanging just above the plants from a distance! Ocotillo are often mistaken for cactus, but in fact they are a member of a small, unrelated family of primarily South American plants, of which it is the northernmost representative.
Is there something we missed for this itinerary?
Itineraries across USA
Acadia
Arches National Park
Badlands
Big Bend
Biscayne
Black Canyon Of The Gunnison
Bryce Canyon
Canyonlands
Capitol Reef
Carlsbad Caverns
Channel Islands
Congaree
Crater Lake
Cuyahoga Valley
Death Valley
Dry Tortugas
Everglades
Gateway Arch
Glacier
Grand Canyon
Grand Teton
Great Basin
Great Smoky Mountains
Guadalupe Mountains
Haleakalā
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes
Hot Springs
Indiana Dunes
Isle Royale
Joshua Tree
Kenai Fjords
Kobuk Valley
Lassen Volcanic
Mammoth Cave
Mesa Verde
Mount Rainier
North Cascades
Olympic
Petrified Forest
Pinnacles
Rocky Mountain
Saguaro
Shenandoah
Theodore Roosevelt
Virgin Islands
Voyageurs
White Sands
Wind Cave
Yellowstone
Yosemite
Zion