In much of the country, winter is a time of quiescence, but in the Sonoran Desert, especially if we have rain, we see action from both plants and animals.

December:

Our own Christmas cactus, the pencil cholla, has bright red fruit that persist through the winter, providing food for many animals, as do the orange berries of the netleaf Hackberry tree which will be ripening in December and January.

Brittlebush, with its silvery-gray leaves will sport yellow, daisy-like flowers if there is rain.

Creosote bushes will sprout shiny new leaves.

Curve-billed thrashers will be establishing their mating territories and cactus wrens will be beginning construction of their breeding nests.

January:

Desert mistletoe, a parasite on many trees, will be in fruit. The tiny, sticky, red berries were eaten by both the Seri and O’odham Indians. The flavor ranges from sweet to sour depending upon the host plant.

These berries also attract Phainopepla (Silky Flycatcher), a cardinal-shaped bird. The males are shiny black with a white wing patch that is conspicuous in flight. Females are dull, grayish brown. Both have red eyes.

Mountain lions will feed well on deer distracted by mating ritual.

February:

This is the time that many desert shrubs begin to bloom. Late in February, if there has been sufficient rain, desert wildflowers such as Mexican gold poppy, lupine, and owl clover will begin their show.

Costa’s and Anna’s hummingbirds will establish territories around backyard feeders and attractive plants. The male birds will display for females. The very pugnacious Rufous hummingbirds may show up mid-month and dispute territorial claims from the Costa’s and Anna’s. Gila woodpeckers will begin their noisy drumming to mark their territories. You may also hear the soft call of Great Horned owls as they begin their mating season.

The winter is our second rainy season.  Unlike the often violent and capricious summer monsoon, the winter rains are gentle and soaking.  When the jet stream dips south, it brings in moisture from the Pacific.

All that is a prelude to April, when the Palo Verde trees turn the desert golden.

Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) is a woody desert shrub with dense branches that usually form a hemispheric mound three to five feet high.  The leaves range from dark green to gray-green to almost silvery.  The gray-silver color is due to hair-like growths that tend to shade the leaves. The more arid the conditions, the smaller and whiter the leaves.  Brittlebush is often a winter-flowering plant, but may  flower during the fall, spring, and early summer as well depending on rainfall.  The flowers are yellow and daisy-like.  Some brittlebush in my yard are flowering now in early December.  The range is the Sonoran Desert and parts of the Mohave Desert.  It favors gravelly slopes and sandy washes.  Brittlebush does well as a cultivated plant and attracts butterflies and bees.

Brittlebush is very drought tolerant and will go dormant and look dead.  The leaves will turn very brittle and eventually fall off.  The plant can also be cut back nearly to the ground and revive the next season.

The plant was/is widely used by native people.  The upper stems exude a yellowish gum or resin that can be chewed.  The gum was also burned as incense (hence the Spanish name incienso).  The fragrance is due to terpenes or terpenoids which are components of essential oils. Vitamin A is a terpene. You can sample the fragrance by crushing the green leaves. It smells like strong tea to me.  Tea made from the dried leaves is used to treat bronchitis and arthritis.   The gum was also used to seal pots.

Yellowish-brown resin collected from the base of the plant can be heated and used as glue.  Native people used this to glue arrowheads to the shaft, for instance.

The Seri Indians used the branches to treat toothache: remove the bitter bark and heat the branch, then place in mouth.  There are some reports that old-time cowboys used the branches, minus bark, as toothbrushes.

For more posts on desert plants, see:

Can You Get Potable Water From a Cactus?

Chiltepin peppers, spice and medicine

Creosote Bush, a Desert Survivor

Desert Tobacco, a pretty but poisonous desert plant

Edible Desert Plants – Barrel Cactus Fruit

Jojoba oil, good on the outside, bad on the inside

Mesquite Trees Provide Food and a Pharmacy

More on Mesquite

Ocotillos and the Boojum

Palo Verde Trees Will Turn the Desert Golden

Saguaro Cactus Icon of the Sonoran Desert

The Old Man and the Totem Pole