Sonoran Desert Wildfire Plants (July 2020 EcoQuest Guide)
This is a guide to Sonoran Desert plants that can possibly recover/resprout, plants that can reestablish themselves by seed, and plants that can be planted to help create natural environmental conditions for other plants to begin to grow after a fire.
To the best of knowledge, ...more ↓
jojoba
Jojoba /həˈhoʊbə/ ( listen), with the botanical name Simmondsia chinensis, and also known as goat nut, deer nut, pignut, wild hazel, quinine nut, coffeeberry, and gray box bush, is native to Southwestern North America. Simmondsia chinensis is the sole species of the family Simmondsiaceae, placed in the order ...more ↓
catclaw acacia
Senegalia greggii is a species of Senegalia native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, from the extreme south of Utah (where, at 37°10' N it is the northernmost naturally occurring Senegalia species anywhere in the world) south through southern Nevada, southeast California, Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas to Baja California, Sinaloa and ...more ↓
whitethorn acacia
Vachellia constricta, also known commonly as the whitethorn acacia, is a shrub native to Mexico and the Southwestern United States, with a disjunct eastern population in Virginia and Maryland.
pink fairy-duster
Calliandra eriophylla, commonly known as fairy duster, is a low spreading shrub which is native to deserts and arid grasslands in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and Mexico.
banana yucca
Yucca baccata (datil yucca or banana yucca) is a common species of yucca native to the deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, from southeastern California north to Utah, east to western Texas and south to Sonora and Chihuahua. It is also reported in the wild in Colombia.
creosote bush
Larrea tridentata is known as creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and as gobernadora in Mexico, Spanish for "governess", due to its ability to secure more water by inhibiting the growth of nearby plants. In Sonora, it is more commonly called hediondilla....
desert ironwood
Olneya tesota is a perennial flowering tree of the Fabaceae family, legumes (peas, beans, etc.), which is commonly known as ironwood or desert ironwood. It is the only species in the monotypic genus Olneya. This tree is part of the western Sonoran Desert complex in the Southwestern United States, which includes flora such as palo verde, saguaro, ...more ↓
desert broom
Baccharis sarothroides is a North American species of flowering shrub known by the common names broom baccharis, desertbroom, greasewood, rosin-bush and groundsel in English and "escoba amarga" or "romerillo" in Spanish. This is a spreading, woody shrub usually sticky with glandular secretions along the primarily leafless green stems. The ...more ↓
globemallows
Sphaeralcea is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family (Malvaceae). There are about 40-60 species, including annuals, perennials, and shrubs. Most originate in the drier regions of North America, with some known from South America. They are commonly known as globemallows, globe mallows, or falsemallows. The name of the genus is derived from the ...more ↓
triangle-leaf bursage
Ambrosia deltoidea is a North American species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names triangle bur ragweed, triangle bursage, and triangleleaf bursage.
brittlebush
Encelia farinosa (commonly known as brittlebush or brittlebrush), is a common desert shrub of northern Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Sinaloa, and Hidalgo) and the southwestern United States (California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada).
broom snakeweed
Gutierrezia sarothrae is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by the common names broom snakeweed, broomweed, snakeweed, and matchweed. It is a subshrub native to much of the western half of North America, from western Canada to northern Mexico, and can be found in a number of arid, grassland, and mountain habitats. It can be toxic ...more ↓
wirelettuce
Stephanomeria is a genus of North American plants also known as wirelettuce, belonging to the dandelion tribe within the sunflower family.
Ephedra
Ephedra is a medicinal preparation from the plant Ephedra sinica. Several additional species belonging to the genus Ephedra have traditionally been used for a variety of medicinal purposes, and are a possible candidate for the Soma plant of Indo-Iranian religion. It has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2,000 years. Native Americans and Mormon ...more ↓
white ratany
Krameria bicolor is a perennial shrub or subshrub of the family Krameriaceae, the rhatanies. It is commonly known as white rhatany, crimson-beak, and chacate in Spanish (cosahui in the state of Sonora). It is found in drier environments of the southwestern United States from California to Texas, and in northern Mexico.
Engelmann's prickly pear
Opuntia engelmannii is a prickly pear common across the south-central and Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It goes by a variety of common names, including cow's tongue cactus, cow tongue prickly pear, desert prickly pear, discus prickly pear, Engelmann's prickly pear, and Texas prickly pear in the US, and nopal, ...more ↓
brown-spined prickly-pear
Opuntia phaeacantha is a species of prickly pear cactus known by the common names tulip prickly pear and desert prickly pear found across the southwestern United States, lower Great Plains, and northern Mexico. The plant forms dense but localized thickets. Several varieties of this particular species occur, and it also hybridizes easily with other prickly pears, ...more ↓
buckhorn cholla
Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa, commonly referred to as buckhorn cholla, is a cholla native to the Mojave, Sonoran, and Colorado Deserts of North America. Along with Cylindropuntia bigelovii (the "teddy bear" cholla), it is the most common cholla found in these deserts.
Graham's fishhook cactus
Mammillaria grahamii is a species of cactus also known by the name Graham's nipple cactus.
California barrel cactus
Ferocactus cylindraceus is a species of barrel cactus which is known by several common names, including California barrel cactus, Desert barrel cactus, and miner's compass. It was first described by George Engelmann in 1853.
Engelmann's hedgehog cactus
The strawberry hedgehog cactus or Engelmann's hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus engelmannii) is commonly found in desert areas of the southwestern United States and the adjacent areas of Mexico, including the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Baja California and Sonora.
saguaro
The saguaro (/səˈwɑːroʊ/, Spanish pronunciation: ) (Carnegiea gigantea) is an arborescent (tree-like) cactus species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea, which can grow to be over 40 feet (12 m) tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican State of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California. The saguaro blossom ...more ↓
