Sunday, June 21, 2020

Desert Willow

I've not seen any desert willow on the south side of the I-10 freeway off Hayfield Road, but there are quite a few of them in the wash around Corn Springs in the Chuckwalla Mountains. 
The desert willow, center front, near Corn Springs. 
It can be a shrub or a tree. Those that I saw ten years ago on the north side of Hayfield Road were more like shrubs and had larger flowers. I saw flowers that were both white and lavender. In Corn Springs the desert willows are trees and have smaller flowers and the flowers are predominantly white. 
The flowers have two ruffled upper lobes and three yellow and magenta streaked lower lobes. 


A male monarch butterfly on a desert willow flower. This particular tree was being swarmed by butterflies. 


1 comment:

  1. Up close, this almost looks like a tropical flower. Crazy!

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