Plant of the Month
0Blue Palo Verde
Parkinsonia florida
- Plant Form: Tree
- Water Use: Very low
- Mature Size: 20-30 ft. tall and wide
- Exposure: Full sun
- Bloom Time: Spring (March-May)
- Native to: California, Arizona, Mexico
- Hardiness: Cold hardy to 12°F
The beautiful green trunk of Blue Palo Verde is not only a striking sculptural addition to your landscape, but its green bark allows this drought-tolerant tree to keep manufacturing sugars for growth even if its leaves have dropped from lack of water in summer.
Blue Palo Verde is prized as much for its unique green branches and trunk as it is for the masses of lemon-yellow flowers that cover this fast-growing tree in spring. Its green limbs allow this graceful but thorny tree to continue to carry on some photosynthesis when its small leaves drop due to drought or cold. A popular hybrid of this species known as ‘Desert Museum’ has no spines. Palo Verde is so drought tolerant, it needs very little or no irrigation after becoming established. Prune to showcase its beautiful branching, but avoid pruning heavily at any one time to maintain its growth structure. Desert birds including hummingbirds and verdin love to nest and raise their young in Palo Verde trees. This extremely popular tree provides filtered shade all year, and can be used as a sculptural focal point or shade tree in many garden styles.
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