[Illustration: Olneya tesota]
Common names: IRONWOOD, DESERT-IRONWOOD, TESOTA, (_PALO-DE-HIERRO_)
Arizona and California deserts: (_Olneya tesota_). Violet-purple.
May-June.
Pea family. Size: Wide-crowned tree up to 35 feet.
Ironwood is one of the desert’s most beautiful trees, being particularly
colorful when the new, dark-green leaves and violet, wisteria-like
flowers give it a lavender glow in late May or early June. Since the
tree survives only in warm locations, it has for years served as a guide
to citrus growers in selecting sites for orange, lemon, or grapefruit
plantings.
Foliage of the Ironwood is dense and evergreen, and the wood is very
heavy and so hard that it cannot be worked with ordinary tools. When
thoroughly dry, it makes high-quality firewood, and as a result it has
been cut and removed over much of the desert, hence mature trees are
becoming relatively scarce. Indians used the wood for arrow points and
as tool handles.
Ironwood trees grow along desert washes, often in company with Mesquite
and Paloverde. Blossoms are much more numerous in some years than in
others. Although the trees, when in bloom, make a spectacular showing,
they are very difficult to capture on color film, and photographs that
do them justice are rare. Seeds, which mature late in the summer, are
roasted and eaten by desert Indians who prize them for their peanut-like
flavor. They are eaten also by various desert animals.
In Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and in some other parts of the
desert, Ironwood trees have become heavily infested with Mistletoe which
stunts or kills the branches and produces grotesque, tumor-like
swellings.