44 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



English name, and to speak of it as the greenwood 

 tree raises a most incongruous association of ideas. 

 Shades of Arden, what a difference ! Yet the Spanish 

 name, taken hterally, is apt enough, for green the 

 tree certainly is, vivid green and green all over: only 

 one must banish all thought of whispering forest 

 and woodsy lawn. 



An odd thing is that this very green tree is a tree 

 almost without leaves; at least, the leaves are so 

 small, and so short-lived as well, as to cut little 

 figure in the general effect. It is the skeleton of the 

 tree — trunk, branches, branchlets, and twigs — 

 that is green, a green vivid and smooth, though the 

 butt of a very old palo verde may be roughened and 

 blackened by age. Such scanty foliage as the tree 

 puts forth in spring, in response to some old vernal 

 urge still strong after ages of forced adaptation to 

 desert conditions, falls by early summer, and leaves 

 the airy, broom-like branches bare against the china 

 blue of the sky. Often the branches are hung with 

 great globes of the desert mistletoe (Phoradendron) 

 so dense as to look like bee-swarms, adding to the 

 remarkable appearance of the tree. 



The palo verde, however, is a miracle for bloom. 

 In mid-March it takes a tinge of yellow, and soon 

 each twig becomes a jewelled chain, petals of whim- 

 sical gold set with chips of ruby for anthers. Its 

 other Spanish name, lluvia de oro, shower of gold, 

 then fits it well. For charm and profusion of bloom 

 it is the desert's premier tree, and reminds me often 

 of that glory of England's spring, the laburnum. 

 Ah, those Thames-side gardens, spilling their over- 



