Palo
Verde
Cercidium
floridum
(Spanish: "green
wood"), any member of the genera Cercidium and Parkinsonia, of the pea
family (Fabaceae), comprising a small group of trees and shrubs scattered
through the arid regions of the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central
America, and Venezuela. Three species of palo verde are native to the
United States; two of them become treelike. Blue palo verde (C. floridum)
is a bushy tree that grows up to 9 m (30 feet) high, found in desert areas
of southern California, Arizona, and northwestern Mexico, including the
Baja California peninsula. It is usually a short-trunked, intricately
branched tree, with smooth, conspicuously green bark and minute leaves
that fall after the rainy season. The bright-yellow flowers, borne in
clusters, are followed by cylindrical, beanlike pods approximately 7.6
cm (3 inches) long. The blue palo verde is a characteristic woody plant
along washes in the Colorado desert. Border palo verde (C. macrum), a
Mexican tree, grows only as far north as southeastern Texas. It is readily
distinguished from the blue palo verde by its flattened, podlike fruits.
Mexican palo verde (Parkinsonia aculeata) occurs in southwestern Arizona
and from Texas to Florida. Copyright © 2000 Encyclopedia Britannica |