FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS OF ARIZONA 583 



brachysperma has been collected near the San Francisco Peaks (Lem- 

 mon 3313) and between Young and Payson, Gila County, growing 

 with CaWtriehe, flowering in May (Peebles and Smith 13295). 



78. TAMARICACEAE. Tamarix family 



1. TAMARIX 



Large shrubs or small trees with slender branches, these covered 

 when young by the small, imbricate, scalelike leaves; flowers in slender 

 spikes terminating the branchlets. perfect, regular, small, 4- or 5- 

 merous; petals and stamens borne on a fleshv disk; fruit a 3- to 5- 

 valved capsule; seeds many, usually with a tuft of hairs at one end. 



1. Tamarix gallica L., Sp. PL 270. 1753. 



Abundant along streams in most parts of the State at altitudes not 

 above 5,000 feet, often forming extensive thickets, March to August. 

 Naturalized from Europe. 



French tamarix. A handsome plant with deep pink to nearly 

 white flowers, from which much honey is obtained in Arizona. In 

 some places the plant is looked upon with favor as a control for too 

 rapid soil erosion. It is seldom browsed by livestock but is used by 

 cattle as a hiding place in the river bottoms. It can be grown on 

 saline soils. 



Athel (T. aphylla) is an evergreen tree from northern Africa frequently planted 

 in Arizona for windbreaks and shade but almost never occurring spontaneously. 

 The wood is brittle and weak, fragrant when burning. The trees grow rapidly 

 but are objectionable on account of the expense of removal, which often is neces- 

 sitated by danger of the heavy limbs falling, and the fact that other plants cannot 

 be grown to best advantage in the dense shade and against the severe competition 

 of the shallow feeding roots. 



79. FOUQLIERIACEAE. Ocotillo family 



1. FOUQUIERIA. Ocotillo 



A large thorny shrub with numerous long whiplike unbranched stems ; 

 petioles of the short-lived primary leaves becoming thorns, bearing 

 in their axils the fascicles of secondary leaves; flowers perfect, regular, 

 in dense terminal panicles, showy, bright red; corolla tubular, 5-lobed; 

 fruit an incompletely 3-celled capsule; seeds flat, winged, the wing 

 disintegrating into hairlike filaments. 



1. Fouquieria splendens Engelm. in Wisliz., Mem. North. Mex. 98. 



1848. 



Southern Apache County and western Mohave County to Greenlee, 

 Cochise, Santa Cruz, Pima, and Yuma Counties, 5,000 feet or lower 

 (exceptionally 6,500 feet in the Chiricahua. Mountains), very common 

 on dry mesas and slopes, April to May. rarely late summer. Western 

 Texas to southeastern California and northern Mexico. 



Sometimes called "slimwood" and "coach-whip." It is one of the 

 oddest and most conspicuous of Arizona plants and is very attractive 

 in flower (pi. 18). The ocotillo drops its leaves as soon as the soil dries, 

 but as quickly retaliates after a good rain, except in winter when 

 temperatures are low. Cuttings root readily, and it is not uncommon 

 to see living fences or hedges of this plant. The straight, thorny 

 stems are set in the ground thickly to build coyote-proof runs and 



