The trees, shrubs, perennial herbs and annuals described in this guide are those that occur in riparian woodlands within and adjacent to more-or-less permanent streams and watered canyons in Arizona. Many of the trees are Arizona Sycamore, Platanus wrightii. Depending on elevation and soil conditions a wide variety of other trees and woody shrubs are prevalent. In Arizona these sycamore-dominated canyons generally range in elevation from 1000 m to 2000 m. Interspersed between the trees are drier ledges and terraces that support vegetation typical of surrounding semi-arid habitats. These drier spots within the galleries are often shaded either by the trees or by high canyon walls and so as a result often support a rich variety of mesic flora. If a plant species is covered in detail in another guide on Arizona Naturalists an icon will so indicate. The user should use the 'back button' on the browser to return to this guide page.

Arizona Sycamore

Tree of grand proportions with white peeling bark and large palmately lobed leaves. Pendulous spherical fruit. More ...

Arizona Walnut

Medium to large-sized tree with large, alternate, compound leaves. Bark is dark and fissured. Fruit a thick-shelled, nut. More ...

Arizona Alder

Medium to large-sized tree with mostly smooth bark and simple, serrated-edge leaves. Fruit in short, dense catkins. More ...

Box Elder

Medium to large-sized tree. Leaves are compound with 3 to 7 segments. Seeds with papery wings like other maples. More ...

Velvet Ash

Medium to large tree with compound, opposite leaves. Dark, fissured bark. Seeds with papery wing. More ...

Net-leaf Hackberry

Alternate elliptical leaves are prominently veined and tough. Med. to large tree with distinct warty bark. Small orange berries. More ...

Fremont Cottonwood

Large, deciduous tree in sycamore canyons mostly at the lower elevations. More ...

Tree of Heaven

Fast growing tree with large, pinnately compound leaves and large clusters of winged fruits. Exotic invasive! More ...

Goodding's Willow

Version of black willow; medium to large tree growing usu. close to water's edge . More ...

Red Willow

Small tree or shrubby. Leaves distinctly whitish on reverse. Margin teeth minute. More ...

Coyote Willow

Shrubby willow growing especially in zones that get scoured by flash floods frequently. More ...

Yew-leaf Willow

The leaves of this small willow tree are short and tough like those of yew. Canyon on the border with Mexico. More ...

Arizona Madrone

Evergreen tree in canyons of southeastern Arizona. Dark green leaves with red petioles. Trunk also reddish brown. More ...

Gambel Oak

Medium to large tree. Light green, deciduous leaves with several prominent, rounded lobes. Acorns. Bark fissured and scaly. More ...

Mistletoe on Oaks

Woody parasite growing directly out of twigs and branches of mostly Quercus spp. Oaks). Minute green flowers in clusters. More ...

Scrub Live Oak

Medium-sized shrub or small tree. Sharp spines at margins of oval leaves. Acorns often present. Evergreen. More ...

Emory Oak

Medium to large tree. Dark, evergreen leaves usu. have several sharp-pointed serrations. Acorns mature one year. More ...

Big-tooth Maple

The thin leaves are smooth, dark green, and palmately lobed. The lobes are tooth-like and rounded. Shady, moist canyons. More ...

Texas Mulberry

Deciduous tree usually small, with several trunks. Leaves with one to three lobe divisions. Berries reddish. More ...

Mexican Blue Oak

Medium-sized trees with tough, blue-green leaves and deeply fissured bark. Leaf margins mostly smooth. Canyons along Mex. border. More ...

Silver-leaf Oak

Medium sized tree in mountains near Arizona-Mexico borderlands. Elliptical leaves are mostly white below. Fruit an acorn. More ...

Net-leaf Oak

Unique oak in moist canyons along the so. border. Velvety, oblong leaves are prominently net-veined, esp. below. More ...

Hop Tree

Medium-sized tree or shrub with dark green, trifoliate, aromatic leaves. Small, cream flowers give rise to paper-ringed seeds. More ...

Single-Leaf (Lowell) Ash

A small tree with dark green single to five leaflet leaves. Seed wings large. More ...

Utah Juniper

Medium-sized tree with small, scale-like leaves. Seeds are embedded in berry-like aril. Bark is gray and fibrous. More ...

Red-berry Juniper

When ripe, berries are red and sweet for birds. Strips of exfoliating bark. More ...

Alligator Juniper

Medium to large tree with dark bark divided into reptilian-like plates. Bright, glaucous berries. More ...

Juniper Mistletoe

Pendulous shrub with numerous brittle stems with only scale-like leaves growing parasitically in juniper or cypress trees. More ...

Salt Cedar

Looks like a conifer except for deciduous twiglets and the presence of flowers. In sunny stretches of canyon bottoms. More ...

Holy-leaf Buckthorn

Medium-sized shrub with evergreen, holly-like leaves and bright red berries in season. Small cream flowers. More ...

Ashy Silktassel

Intricately branched, large shrub with broadly elliptical, smooth-margined, opposite leaves. Leaves have an ashy cast due to minute hairs. More ...

Birch-leaf Mountain Mahogany

Medium to large shrub on rocky sites. Tough leaves wedge-shaped. Whitish-cream flowers. More ...

Mexican Cliff Rose

Yellow flowers with five petals are followed by plumed fruits. Lobed evergreen leaves are shiny-resinous. More ...

Point-leaf Manzanita

Evergreen shrub on drier ledges and in chaparral. Urn-shaped, white flowers. Bark smooth, reddish. More ...

Smooth Sumac

Thicket-forming shrub with long, compound leaves. Yellowish flowers in dense panicle later with red berries. More ...

Skunk Bush

Medium-sized shrub with three-parted leaves and strongly aromatic odor. Yellowish flowers followed by fuzzy red berries. More ...

Evergreen Sumac

Found in canyons and on rocky slopes along to Mexico border. Small to large shrub w/o thorns. White flowers. More ...

Poison Ivy

Low shrubby plant or weakly climbing vine usually in partial shade. Three-parted, shiny, dark-green leaves. Small spikes of white flowers. More ...

New Mexico Locust

Small trees often forming thickets with sharp thorns. Leaves pinnately compound. Clusters of showy pink pea-flowers. More ...

Wood's Rose

Medium-sized shrub with pink rose flowers with five petals. Numerous stamens and pistils. Leaves three or five parted and with serrate margins. More ...

Choke Cherry

Simple, alternate leaves with serrated margin. White flowers in spikes. Small tree or shrubby thicket. More ...

Apple

Medium sized deciduous tree with dark scaly bark and broadly elliptic, serrated leaves. Large 5-petaled, white flowers. More ...

Desert Willow

Willow-like leaves are tough, leathery. Trumpet flowers can be dark pink to nearly white. More ...

Southern Catalpa

In Arizona this non-native tree is usu. small. Large heart-shaped leaves, white-purple trumpet flowers and long seed pods. More ...

Apache Plume

Intricately branched shrub with white rose-flowers and fruit with long, feathery plumes. More ...

Arizona Dewberry

White flowers on thorny, woody vine with palmately compound leaves. More ...

Bastard Toadflax

Low-growing stems are tough as are the leathery leaves. Grows on rocky slopes among trees and shrubs. More ...

White Honeysuckle

Leaves below flowers are opposite and joined together. Clusters of narrow white flowers. More ...

Canyon Grape

Woody vine climbing by tendrils. Broadly orbicular leaves with coarsely toothed leaves. Small grapes in cluster. More ...

False Indigo

Medium-sized shrub with a number of stems arising from crown and spreading into a small thicket. Very small dark purple flowers on a spike. Foliage smells unpleasant; leaves pinnately compound. More ...

Indian Hemp

Mostly herbaceous shrub with long, flexible stems that ooze milky sap when broken. Clusters of pink or white flowers. unpleasant; leaves pinnately compound. More ...

Kidneywood

Found in canyons close to Mexico border. Small tree or large shrub w/o thorns. Spikes of small pea flowers. More ...

Velvet Mesquite

Medium to large tree with straight thorns and double-compound, deciduous leaves. Flowers minute in dense, elongate spikes. Bean pods. More ...

White-thorn Acacia

The numerous, small flowers are grouped into sphaerical heads. Often the plants have few if any thorns. Drier sites in the lower canyons. More ...

Graythorn

Small, oblong leaves may be dense following rains. With drought thick, very sharp, whitish thorns define this large shrub. More ...

Cat-Claw Acacia

Rambling shrub with so, so, sharp hooked thorns. Short dense spikes of highly fragrant cream-colored flowers. More ...

Wait-a-Minute

Viciously thorny shrub with pairs of hooked thorns on twigs. Flowers are very small, white and arranged into ball. More ...

Velvet-pod Mimosa

Thorny shrubs, about a meter tall, with feathery leaves and spikes of pink flowers. Canyons and hillsides in the borderlands. More ...

Feather-plume

There are long silvery hairs on calyces of the pink-purple flowers. Medium-sized shrub. Compound, scented leaves. More ...

Coral Bean

Shrubby plant with large trifoliate leaves and red tube flowers. Border region canyons. More ...

California Buckthorn

Medium to large shrub with dark green, elliptic leaves. Fruit a small dark berry. Frequent in the understory along wooded canyons. More ...

Desert Ceanothus

Stiff-branched shrub of chaparral. Small, leathery leaves. Numerous white flowers in dense clusters. More ...

Deerbrush

This ceanothus is common in the upper canyons and among pines. Small white flowers and thornless branches. Simple leaves are alternate on stem and much thinner than Desert Ceantothus. More ...

Pallid Wolfberry

Woody shrub with at first obscure green flowers. On closer look the flowers are really beautiful. Leaves are an odd gray-green. More ...

Twinberry

Broom-like shrub mostly less than 50cm tall with bright yellow flowers and paired spherical capsules as fruit. More ...

Tree Tobacco

Small tree with one or a few main stems. Large smooth leaves. Tubular yellow flowers. More ...

Whitebrush

The small leathery leaves are opposite on the stems and are aromatic when crushed. Canyons near Mexico border. More ...

Desert Broom

Large shrub with numerous straight green stems. Abundant at roadsides and in canyon washes. Fluffy white seeds in fall. More ...

Seep Baccharis

Very large shrub with willow like leaves and growing in canyon bottoms or washes where there's permanent water seepage. More ...

Buck Horn Cholla

Cactus with succulent joints less than 30 cm long. Fruit dry/spiny. Grows on dry sites well above flood zone of canyons. More ...

Golden-flowered Agave

Roseate of large sword-like leaves giving rise to very tall flower spike. More ...

Sierra Madre Yucca

Big spikes of large white flowers above stiff, bayonet-like leaves. Grows in partial shade in canyons. More ...

Banana Yucca

Leaves shaped like daggers with fibers shredding from margin. Big flowers with 6 white petals. More ...

Sotol

Numerous, tough, long, strap-like leaves from a basal rosette of on a short trunk. Margins of leaves with sharp prickles. More ...

Bear Grass

Long, slender, grass-like leaves are much tougher in texture than any Arizona grass. Big panicles of small flowers. More ...