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| Our 'house garden' with a mixture of indigenous and imported xerophytes |
When we bought our property in Picture Rocks in 2002, there was a run-down flower garden close to the house. We expelled half dead rose bushes and rabbit-fenced ice-plants right away. Most of our new landscaping plants were cacti and other succulents, but we also wanted a few flowers close to the house.
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| Red Birds of Paradise Caesalpinia pulcherrima |
At gas stations and along street medians, we saw very healthy, lush Red Birds of Paradise
Caesalpinia pulcherrima. Our sandy soil and maybe our stingy watering produced much smaller plants with fewer flowers, but the main problem proved to be low winter temperatures. Coming from more tropical regions, maybe the West Indies, the plants freeze down to the ground and have to start over after a normal Tucson winter. Our bushes are still hanging on ...
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| Mexican Bird of Paradise, Caesalpinia mexicana |
We soon found another plant in the same genus,
Caesalpinia mexicana (Mexican Bird of Paradise), that fits our climate better. No surprise there, its home are the arid mountain slopes and rocky washes of Sonora, Mexico. It's fast growing even under very arid conditions, deciduous and hardy to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The branches are woody and the plant can be trimmed into tree shape. We also found that taller stems break like glass in our strong wind. The Mexican Bird of Paradise can be easily propagated from seeds. I have found it on the southern slopes of some of our sky-island mountains and I've seen it in the wild in So Cal north around Dulzura in San Diego Co.. I cannot tell if those are feral invasives or naturally occurring wild populations.
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Anyway, the plants are not very long lived. Recently, half of a 12 year old tree dried up. When I was cutting it up, I noticed the exit holes of beetles. There might have been both Buprestides and Cerambycids it seemed. Although it seems a lot like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped, we cut up the branches to place them in a closed container. If there are still beetles hatching, we will see them.
I am interested to see what species can feed on an introduced tree. The leguminous Birds maybe related closely enough to mesquite and palo verde to host the same insects. But maybe I'll find something more interesting that followed the Birds all the way from Mexico? There is of course no way of telling whether the beetles that left the holes had anything to do with the demise of the branch. Many species are strongly drawn to fresh-dead wood, which is still nutritious without being defended by tree sap. If I find anything, I'll add it here.
