Plant of the day is: Fouquieria splendens or ocotillo

Plant of the day is: Fouquieria splendens or ocotillo

    The absurdity of this name may actually help it stick in my head.  So the two L's in the common name are pronounced as a Y, just so that is on the record.

    So, as a bit of foreshadowing, I was really lucky when in the timing of my trip to Tuscon last spring.  It had rained a little bit right about the time I arrived and things in the desert do go a bit nutty after a good rain.  More on that and this plant soon.

First, how bout a look at one of the reasons this plant is so awesome.

A photo I took - note the lack of leaves on the stem.

    So at first glance, this almost seems like a cactus or maybe a Euphorbiaceae member.  In fact, it is a member of the Fouquieriaceae family, which is remarkably easier to say than it looks after a few tries.  Fouquieria is the type genus for the family, basically what gives the family its ....awesome name.  In fact, it's the only thing that gives it the family name.  Yessir, there is just one lonely genus in the whole family.  You guessed it ...it's Fouquieria.  There are 11 species in this family by the way, all occurring in the southwest/northern Mexico. 

    So yeah, up close it kind of looks like a thin cactus.  On further inspection, it has interesting spikes that form from the underside of the petiole of the leaves and then remain after the leaves disappear.  What leaves you ask?!  These leaves.

Yep, they are greener here right?

    So, being the clever and rather original plant it is (the genus bears little resemblance to any other sort of plant in terms of classification...pretty cool), after a bit of rain it switches into leaf production mode and gets the most out of some growth and photosynthetic energy while the gettin is good.  As the soil dries out, the leaves senesce (mature) and fall off.

   They are indigenous only to the Sonoran desert in the utmost southwest parts of Arizona and California.  I feel pretty lucky that I got to see a lot of them flowering in their native habitat. 

Pollinated by...

And Carpenter bees too

Actually named after french physician Pierre Fouquier.  There is one other particular species in this genera that is also quite fascinating and I'll revisit sometime in the future. 

For now, I hope you've found this information Fouq'ing useful.