FOOTHILL PALO VERDE
aka. LITTLE-LEAF PALO VERDE
Parkinsonia microphylla
Cercidium microphylum
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Capnobotes fuliginosus
Watercolor from specimens found at Bumble Bee, Arizona, 12 July 1992.
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Among the caterpillars found munching the leaves may be Hubbard's Silk Moth -- Sphingicampa hubbardi. This is easily one of the most spectacular and, quite honestly, beautiful ‘worm’ to be found in the desert.
Nearly mature seed pods observed at Cave Creek Park n. of Phoenix, Arizona, USA. 11 June 2011
TREE: The twigs and branches and most of the main trunk are smooth and
slightly yellow-green.
LEAVES: Two or four sets of ~10, small leaflets form a compound leaf. Drought
and cold deciduous.
FLOWERS: Abundant blossoms in April and May are pale yellow with five
petals. The
banner petal is usu. white. Essentially no flowers open during the
summer. In most areas Foothill Palo Verde will be blooming a week or two later
than Blue Palo Verde.
FRUIT: The pods contain smooth, hard, bean-seeds that are slightly
flattened and number 2 to 7 per pod.
RANGE: Abundant. Of all the trees, the Foothill Palo Verde probably
overlaps the range of the Saguaro Cactus most completely. Foothills tend to
grow on rocky slopes often away from washes or otherwise much drier sites than
Blue Palo Verde.
ARMED: The rather weak spines of Foothill Palo Verde are straight and
located at the tips of short branchlets.
Before they harden, the young seed pods of both palo verdes can be boiled and eaten like tender peas in the pod. The seeds of both palo verdes are heavily attacked by seed feeding bruchid beetles (bean weevils). Perfectly round emergence holes are left after the seed has been hollowed out by a developing larva. Two common genera are Mimosestes and Stator.