Prosopsis velutina  (velvetmesquite) (mezquite)  Fabaceae Perhaps the most common Sonoran Desert tree, mesquite is known nationwide for fine furniture, firewood, and for the mild-flavored honey produced by the bees that flavor its flowers. An average-sized tree produces 12 million flowers per season. This species has slighlty curved, often speckled pods with sticky beads of sugary sap on them and 12 to 20 leaflets nearly touching one another on each of two to four compound leaves. Roots run deep, often reaching underground water. The pods of this nitrogen-producing tree were the single most important food of Sonoran Desert Indians. The velvet mesquite blooms commences in late April, wanes by early June, then reinitiates in early August. Mesquites are somewhat sensitive to long freezes.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988."

  Datura  ( ) (Toloache) Solanaceae (Datura meteloides) A perennial datura, this widespread jimsonweed has fragrant white trumpet flowers with a purple or lavender flush in the throat. Its nodding, apple-shaped capsules are spiny and open irregularly to drop their buff seeds. Daturas, which are visited by both hawk-moths and honeybees, have a long but irregular blooming season. This species is a deep-rooted drought tolerator that flowers after any substantial rain between April and November. A diminutive annual relative, Datura discolor , has a shorter blooming period and smaller range but is just as attractive. Both are poisonous.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988"

   Verbesina encelioides  ( ) ( ) Asteraceae This long season annual has triangular, toothed leaves that are grayish-green in color and fetid in odor. Cronwbeard's ray flowers are a gorgeous yellow-orange, each three-notched at its end. The disk flowers are yellow, and are followed by flattened seeds covered with fine, gray-brown hairs, hence the name crownbeard. This plant colonizes disturbed roadsides and abandoned fields, from deserts clear into pines. One set of these plants germinates early, to flower between March and July. Another, large crop, germinates with the late summer rains and flowers between July through December.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988"

  Rafinesquia neomexicana  (desert chicory) ( ) Asteraceae A white-flowered spring bloomer, this annual shares a few superficial features with the blue-flowered perennial chicory introduced from Europe and now widespread throughout much of America. Desert chicory is short but profusely branching and has deeply divided, arrow-shaped leaves. In wet winters, it becomes abundant upon plains, gentle bajadas, and mesas, from 200 feet in the desert, to its grassland edge above 3, 000 feet. In some dry years, it may fail altogether even when other herbs flower. Its bloom may stretch from March to May.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988."

  Lasthenia gracilis  (goldfields) ( ) Lasthenia chrysostoma Asteraceae This low-growing, tiny-flowered annual has linear, opposite leaves and forms small clumps or large carpets after good winter rains. Its small yellow, terminal heads seldom reach six inches in height. Found on mesas and plains from 1, 500 to 4, 500 feet in elevation, goldfields can carpet sandy flats for weeks. They bloom as early as February 20 and as late as mid-April but peak in the middle of March.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988"

  Allicelia latifolia  ( ) ( ) Gilia latifolia Polemoniaceae This pink-lavender, funnelform flower is one of many gilias within Arizona. It is an annual that is frequently visited by hummingbirds and butterflies. In wet springs, it appears in large stands on sandy soils in the Colorado and Gila river valleys, always blow 2, 000 feet. It may be found blooming anytime from mid-March to late April.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988."

  Echinocereus engelmannii  (atrawberry hedgehog) ( ) Cactaceae The reddish-purple or magenta flowers of hedgehogs rupture the skin of this cactus just above the areoles, the places where from two to six central spines cluster along the plant's ribs. The curved spines of this cactus are variable in color, from white or gold to black. Its cup-shaped flowers open for several consecutive days, attracting bees and beetles to their abundant pollen and nectar. Medium-sized bees alight on the stigma and probe into the masses of pollen below. As the bee collects one flower's pollen, it leaves behind other pollen, aiding cross-pollination. Hedgehog blooms often last only two weeks, beginning at the end of March or as late as mid-April. It grows on outwash fans, flats and, hillsides from sea level to 5,000 feet in grasslands.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988". 

  Calochortus kennedyi  (desert mariposa lily) ( ) Liliaceae This striking spring bloomer can be differentiated from other mariposas by its deep orange-red to yellow or vermilion velvety petals, each with a brownish purple spot at the base;. In some places, mariposas are beetle-pollinated. The desert mariposa has clusters of two to four flowers on a stalk rising from a bulb hidden beneath linear, basal leaves. In Arizona, its blossoming is largely limited to April, peaking in mid-month. It is found in many habitats, from desert to grassland and semi-arid woodland vegetation.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988". 

  Sphaeralcea ambigua  (globemallow) ( ) Malvaceae The large number of orange-colored flowers produced by this multi-stemmed mallow over a year provides a steady source of pollen and nectar to honeybees and mallow-specializing bees. Flower color variants occur, including ones with white, purple, red, or grenadine hues. A low-growing perennial herb, desert mallow has long panicles of flowers and roundish, shallow-lobed leaves. The leaves have star-shaped hairs on them that irritate the eyes if accidentally rubbed into them. From dry rocky slopes to washes and the banks of springs, this is one of the most adaptable of the mallow species, which seldom exhibit so much drought tolerance. Below 3,500 feet, this species blooms year around, although each plant has an individual bloom time.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988". 

  Simmondsia chinensis  (jojoba) (jojoba) Simmondsiaceae Although this desert shrub lacks showy flowers, its floral clusters and waxy fruit still intrigue many people. The plant shape guides wind-dispersed pollen toward female flowers, but bees also steal pollen from male plants. Jojoba prefers rocky slopes with coarse soils, above pockets of cold air drainage. The liquid wax extracted from its seeds is currently marketed as a key ingredient in many cosmetics. Jojoba has a long and variable flowering season. At one site, it has extended from mid-January to late-April in some years, but only February and early March in others.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988". 

  Lupinus sparsiflorus  (lupine) ( ) Fabaceae This annual lupine species has violet-blue, pea-like blooms with yellow spots on one petal that turns purplish-red when the flower is manipulated by bees. Lupines have finger-like leaflets which tilt to track the sun at a direct angle, thereby gaining additional solar radiation during the winter when such energy is at a premium. Some years, lupine begins to flower in January. Attractive to bumble bees and digger bees, these flowers peak in color and fragrance from mid-March through mid-April, on alluvial fans, washes, and canyons below 2,300 feet.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988".

  Larrea tridentata  (creosotebush) (gobernadora ) Zygophillaceae These strong-scented, resinous shrubs form extensive stands throughout the warm deserts of the Americas. Although the yellow, five-petalled flowers are small, they offer color where drought eliminates other hues. The 5, 000-500, 000 flowers produces by a single creosotebush in an average year attracts bees, wasps and flies. Petals twist 90 degrees if they've been pollinated. Sonoran Desert creosote blooms peak in March and April, and enlargement is triggered by a drenching rain following a drought, but flowering itself does not occur until the soil begins to dry out again. The bush is found on flats, bajadas, and hills below 4,500 feet.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988".

  Justicia californica  (Brown-eyed primrose) ( ) Acanthaceae This sprawling, pale-stemmed shrub produces enough red flowers early in the spring to cause territorial battles among Anna's, Costa's, and black-chinned hummingbirds. The tubular flowers bloom profusely, and tide most hummers over in the winter until other plants begin to bloom. Frequenting the sand and gravel washes skirting low desert mountain ranges, chuparosa always grows below 2,500 feet. Its bloom time extends from late August through June, depending upon the locality.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988".

    Chaenactis stevioides  (desert pincushion) ( ) Asteraceae This annual differs from the related Fremont's pincushion by its cream or yellow (rather than white) flowers and by having hairy, flattened leaves rather than glabrous, fleshy ones. It is a common component of wildflower mixtures on desert plains and broad washes, blooming from mid-February to the end of April. Its densities can vary fiftyfold on the same spot, between wet and dry years. Although short-statured, pincushion plants sprinkle much color into desert grassland and chaparral openings, peaking around early March in the low desert and later at higher elevations.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988". 

    Calliandra eriophylla  (fairyduster) ( ) Fabaceae This small shrub has clustered rose colored flowers with numerous stamens that protrude like brushes beyond the length of the blossoms themselves. The stamens hold packages of pollen called polyads, each with a sticky place for attaching onto pollinators. These flowers are set in lacy, acacia-like foliage, with five to 15 pairs of leaflets. Flowering from October through April and peaking near the end of March, fairydusters can be found from rocky hillsides and canyon walls to the banks of arroyos. Butterflies, bees, and perhaps some hummingbirds are its pollinators. They are often the only winter-blooming shrubs on the desert mountain slopes.  "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988"