Posts Tagged ‘Sornoran Desert’

The Desert Ironwood

The Desert Ironwood, or Arizona Ironwood, only grows in the valleys and washes of the Sonoran Desert.  Found mostly in sandy washes where there is water available, this slow growing tree is drought deciduous, and loses all its leaves during dry spells. 

Ironwoods are very important to the desert community, since it is a nurse plant to many others in the area, including the Saguaro, Organ Pipe, and Barrel Cactus, as well as other plants that require shelter when they’re young.  It belongs to the same family as the pea, and the flowers and leaves are similar to the sweet pea.  Native peoples have long used these pretty little flowers as medicine, treating poor digestion and other stomach ailments.

The beans of the Ironwood are eaten by many of the animals that live here and when they’re toasted, they are said to taste like roasted peanuts.

The ironwood tree is the largest tree in the Sonoran desert, sometimes growing up to 30 feet tall.   It has been known to live to be 1500 years old, and since it is very slow growing, it’s often seen with plants that started out beneath it growing up through its branches.

This tree is famous the world over for its dark, dense wood, one of the hardest and heaviest known.  The wood is so valuable that a large quantity is cut illegally every year from public lands.  Legend says that carvings made from the beautiful wood bring good fortune and luck to the owners, but it seems that it’s not good luck for the Ironwood, since the quantity of trees remaining is getting smaller every year.  They make a great landscape plant, so be sure and add them to your yard!

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Edited: January 30th, 2009