by Lisa Manifold, Grande Living Reader
Photos by Lisa Manifold
The Spanish translation of ocotillo — pronounced oh-kuh-TEE-yoh — is “little torch.” It’s also referred to as: buggywhip, coachwhip, candlewood, slimwood, desert coral, Jacob’s staff, vine cactus, and is a flowering spiny shrub.
Many think the ocotillo is a cactus, but it’s not. They are a semi-succulent desert plant in the fourguieria family.
The plant is indigenous to the Sonoran, Chihuahuan and Colorado deserts from southeastern California to western Texas and south into Mexico with a life span of 60 to 100 years.
The ocotillo stem’s (near the base of the plant) divide into several slender, wide-spreading, spiny branches, extending upward 8 to 20 or more feet. Most of the time the stems are leafless but, when the plant receives enough moisture, small 2-inch oval leaves grow from the stems
In spring and summer red-orange tubular flowers in 6- to 10-inch-long clusters accompany the leaves at the end of the stem. The leaves will remain on the plant until the soil dries out, then they’ll fall off to conserve the plant’s moisture and reduce evaporative loss.
The now “leafless” ocotillo will rely on the chlorophyll in their stems for photosynthesis to survive.
In southern Arizona, the blooming of the ocotillo’s orange-red flowers coincides with the hummingbird’s northern migration, which helps to pollinate the plants.
The pollen attaches to the hummingbird’s beak and feathers as the bird gets nectar from the flowers. It is then transported by the hummingbird as it flies from flower to flower. This helps to create ocotillo seeds. Carpenter bees and other birds: Hooded-Orioles, Lucy’s Warblers, Verdins, House finches, etc., also help to disperse pollen by collecting nectar and/or insects from the flowers.
