Spring In The Sonoran Desert — Image by kenne
The Creosote bush is a plant of extremes: it is a widely used medicinal plant; it is the most drought tolerant
perennial in North America, and it may be the oldest living plant.
Creosote (Larrea tridentata), also known as greasewood, is the most common shrub in three of the four north American deserts.
It is too cold in the Great Basin Desert of Nevada, but it thrives in the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts.
Creosote is an evergreen shrub, commonly up to six feet tall or taller, that has tiny green leaves, yellow flowers,
and grey-fuzzy fruit. It flowers several times a year depending on rainfall. — Source: Arizona Daily Independent
To me, there are few greater pleasures in life than the wonderful fragrance of desert creosote following an August rain.
When I was a kid, just for fun, we had a creosote bush on the backside of our property that I began watering on a regular basis. If you do that for a few years, they can grow to be quite large, like about 15-20 feet high and the spread out, too.
Ah, yes, I have a dream. Maybe some day I can return to Arizona if only for a little while.
The forecast was for overnight rain, but none came. So, if I want to smell the creosote, I will need to cup my hands around a branch and breath on it. We so do need rain.