Tree of the Month: Foothills Palo Verde

John Eisenhower of Integrity Tree Service talks about the Tree Of The Month, the Foothills Palo Verde.

Foothills Palo Verde

Scientific: Parkinsonia microphylla (formerly Cercidium microphyllum)

Common: foothills or little leaf palo verde, yellow palo verde

Family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae)

Origin: Widely dispersed within upland foothill subdivision of Sonoran Desert in eastern California, Arizona, and into Sonora and Baja California.

Landscape Use: Xeric and/or native desert gardens as a small multi-branched tree or large background shrub.

Form & Character: Deciduous tree, stiff, rounded and spreading, open with intricate terminal branching, arid.

Stems/Trunks: Green photosynthetic trunk, smooth bark; dense, twiggy and spiny

Size/Growth Habit: Monoecious, spiny shrub to small tree, partially deciduous with moderately slow growth to 15 to 25 feet in height with equal spread depending on site water availability.

Foliage/Texture: Tiny pinnately compound leaves, 4 to 8 pairs leaflets, short terminal spur branches that growth to a stiff and spine like tip, leaves, stems and branches are all medium to yellowish green, photosynthetic; fine texture.

Flowers/Fruits: Pale yellow pea-shaped flowers followed by short, brownish pods in mid summer that abscise all at once.

Comments: Seasonal litter, Thorns

Home Maintenance Calendar Tree of the Month: #FoothillsPaloVerde

For more info view the full plant specifications from ASU's Virtual Library of Phoenix Landscape Plants: Foothills Palo Verde

Podcast

John Eisenhower of Integrity SavATree talks about the tree of the month Foothill Palo Verde. Plus pruning, trimming out frost damage, the 3 calendar events when to fertilize your trees and listener questions. John explains his new partnership with SavATree.

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