The palo verdes blooming all around Tucson have cast a spell over me again. I couldn’t help but smile stuck in traffic on the freeway, and later on my way to the dentist, for the brilliant, yellow trees lining the roads. My kids couldn’t help but stick their noses into overhanging, living bouquets of palo verde branches on the way home from school. The trees are show-offs, really, but in a “This is Arizona Spring!” sort of way.
The palo verde is, in fact, Arizona’s state tree. My sister Krista is a world traveler as well as a fellow Arizona native. She strengthened my appreciation of the palo verde with a recent Facebook photo. Krista reflected on taking time to rest while watching other people’s planes fly by her Tempe home, and ended the post with, “Check out those gorgeous palo verde blooms…!” I, too, am glad she can stop and really see the flowers.
The palo verdes I’m getting to know this month include a large shade tree at Nanini Library and a scrappy survivor at Miles ELC. Nanini Library opened their new, outdoor seating area last year, thoughtfully designed around a mature palo verde. This Saturday, Nature to You will be providing a workshop on that patio. Palo verde trees do love the heat of late spring more than the relative coolness of early spring – so I am thankful for the shelter this tree will help provide on a warm afternoon teaching about Sonoran Desert seasons.
At Miles, where I lead the school garden program during the week, my students helped give hope to a young palo verde that popped color but lacked enough water for leaves. We soaked its basin last week. Sure, the bark can photosynthesize, for survival without losing more water through leaves. But this tree will need energy for more roots to dig down deep in the coming summer. This week: a few more leaves, and already a new seed pod!
More yellow abounds. Our front yard lost its palo verde last year but still sports: creosote, brittlebush, desert marigold, and desert senna. They all have a chance of blooming through summer. A few poppies remain from the winter. I added a potted, nonnative sweet broom last weekend, as cheerful to my nose as to my eyes. Of course we have sunflowers in the backyard – some volunteers that grew and bloomed early, and many younger plants getting ready to shine. At Miles, a golden lupine surprised me – did you know there is such a flower? Yellow tugs at my senses of sight and wonder, and generally propels me forward with a smile.
