Common Plants of the Desert View Tower
These are the common large shrubs and conspicuous cacti along the Desert Spring trail starting at the tower. Please send corrections to the tower if you see an error. Here's the trail on Google's map with viewpoints marked. The images on this page are thumbnails: click them to see high-resolution versions.
Desert agave (Agave deserti)
Conspicuous and easy to find all around the tower. Spines on leaf edges; often has a very tall flower stalk.
Cholla (Cylindropuntia sp.)
A cholla abundant around the tower, but I'm not sure which species. The tips fall off and stick painfully to shoes or dog's noses.
Calico cactus (Echinocereus engelmanni)
A small cactus with many short stems arising in one dense cluster.
Jointfir (Ephedra sp.)
Very common near the trail and throughout the area, they are shrubs up to a meter tall with green, cylindrical stems but no leaves. It's a gymnosperm, closer to conifers like pines than to flowering plants. I haven't worked out which species are near the tower, as there are several known in S. California and they are very similar. The genus is a source of the drugs ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, now banned in the US.
California barrel cactus (Ferocactus cylindraceus)
The barrel cactus, easy to spot but not common on this trail.
California juniper (Juniperus californica)
Common and easy to find around the tower, often with berries. Several have good-sized trunks and are probably hundreds of years old.
Palo verde (Parkinsonia aculeata)
Large green trunk, looks leafless. There is one growing against the tower and one in the garden. Look closely to see the long, needle like central leaf vein (or rachis) that remains on the tree after the tiny leaflets fall off.
Desert apricot (Prunus fremontii)
There is a large shrub between the springs and the radio house, the only one I have seen near this trail. It has a substantial trunk but few leaves. Note the smooth gray bark, just like other cherries.
Desert scrub oak (Quercus cornelius-mulleri)
There are quite a few around the tower, large shrubs with substantial trunks. The woody balls in the picture are not acorns, but appear to be galls.
Sugar bush (Rhus ovata)
With such conspicuous large, dark leaves, it's the leafiest of the shrubs and doesn't look like a desert plant.
Catclaw (Senegalia greggii)
Mimosa leaves, and very sharp, painful spines. There are a number around the tower. It used to be in the genus Acacia.
Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis)
The leaves are thick and lack veins. The seeds are source of an oil of high quality, used in lotions and as a lubricant. It has similar properties to whale oil, and jojoba is grown for commercial production of the oil in many parts of the world, though the plant originates here in the deserts of southern California.
Mohave yucca (Yucca schidigera)
Larger individuals grow a woody trunk a meter or so tall, like a small version of the Joshua tree. Very common around the tower. Leaves like agave, but lack spines.