DATURA WRIGHTII

Botanical Name: Datura Wrightii
Common Names: Sacred Datura
Alternate Botanical Names: n/a

Visual Characteristics: Small yet distinct, this low growing dweller of ditches, slopes, roadsides and other areas where the soil has been somewhat displaced, lives longer than two years, or referred to as perennial. Its dark green pointy tipped leaves are more dense and lush than average desert plants, with blooming apexes of captivating white flowers, often accented by purple or red. They open during later hours and produce a very pleasing fragrance, most have closed by the time the sun is overhead. Some of the prettiest, most widely occuring plants are also the deadliest and Sacred Datura is an important example.

Native To 29 Palms: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common

Occurance In Rural Areas: Common

Use by Indigenous Cultures: An abundance of information exists which suggest a notorious tradition of feeding an always hallucinogenic, sometines lethal Sacred Datura broth during spiritual ceremonies.

Sentiments: Flares full of white and gleaming so bright, still do they shine by sublime of the night, woe to the few who drink from her dew, you die or you fly if your lip sip this brew, hewn from the heavens drips spilling so humble, touch it or clutch it you mumble and stumble.

SENEGALIA GREGGII

Botanical Name: Senegalia Greggii

Common Names: Catclaw, Wait-a-Minute Bush

Alternate Botanical Names: Acacia Greggii

Visual Characteristics: Presenting as a medium sized shrub, casual eyes could mistake Catclaw for one or more or its biome associates, such as Larrea Tridentata or California Juniper. Rains render lush green foliage and can cause young plants to look similar to Ocotillo. As more familarity is achieved, hanging seed pods become noticeable, which turn brown as they mature. Small thorns reside on many of the branches, and easily become entangled in skin, clothing, or fur, giving way to its common name. It is Deciduous, which means many of its leaves are shed in times of drought. This species is susceptible to the host seeking Desert Mistletoe, which can appear as a bundle of deceptively innocent twigs amidst its branches.

Native To 29 Palms: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common

Occurance In Rural Areas: Common

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Information suggests native people gathered only younger seeds, avioding the older, known to be toxic. Many tribes used the twigs for various applications such as baskets, brushes, brooms, bows, small tools and construction material for fences. Other accounts tell of camoflauge, aromatic essences, and grazing of domesticated animals.

Sentiments: So quiet she laid among wind and shade, Sitting on sickles cut from its clade, Though unforboding the sit seemed at first, When a nip and a clip slip a rip through her purse, Oh wont you save her, Skin hot in a push, The damsel entangled wait a minute bush.

WASHINGTONIA FILIFERA

Botanical Name: Washingtonia Filifera

Common Names: California Fan Palm

Alternate Botanical Names: Brahea Filifera and numerous others

Visual Characteristics: Elegance eminates from this queen of the desert. Mature specimins are often tall trees with gray green leaves or fronds, known to botany as Palmate. Their trunks are thick and resemble a column, which is an especially helpful diagnostic indicator when compared to Washingtonia Robusta, a close relative which becomes more slender toward the top. California Fan Palm trunks are also often surrounded by dead leaves, which remain in Marcescent manner, completely obscuring the bark beneath. These withered fronds can protect the plant in the event of fire, but in its absence, become inhabited by birds and invertibrates. The trees often occur naturally in oases throughout the desert regions, relicts of a more abundant past.

Native To 29 Palms: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common

Occurance In Rural Areas: Common

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Tales abound wherein infructescences of small but sweet dates were harvested, processed, and stored for later use. They were also eaten fresh, or cooked. The leaves were dried and worked into materials for housing, storage, small tools and utincils. There are also accounts of cultivation within its endemic and adjacent ranges.

Sentiments: Mystic she sway with green and gray, Guarding the gates in the glare of the day, At night stars of white shone through tight little teeth, Abiding by siding on slants underneath, A bond beyond frond in the cool evening air, so pretty the moon as it shines on her hair.

CYLINDROPUNTIA BIGELOVII

Botanical Name: Cylindropuntia Bigelovii
Common Names: Teddy Bear Cholla

Alternate Botanical Names: Opuntia Bigelovii

Visual Characteristics: A collection of greenish spiny cylindrical growths arranged on a distinct trunk like stalk. Generally the size of a small bush, it can grow over six feet tall. Tightly interlaced yellowish spines densely cover the segments, helping it stand out from other Cylindropuntia such as Silver Cholla, with whom they share similar vibrant green flowers. The segments become heavier in wet conditions, making portions even more prone to being dislodged. Their ability so successfully vegatatively reproduce can make vast communities, referred to as Gholla Gardens.

Native to 29 Palms: Yes
Native to Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Uncommon

Occurance In Rural Areas: Rare

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Some traditional desert people made Cholla buds, called Coilim, an important part of their lifestyle. Clay would be built into cooking pits, where Coilim and saltbush were placed and covered with leaves. Feasting events of dancing and spirituality lasted for hours while the pits slowly steamed.

Sentiments: As with all Cylindropuntia, there is an alluring alien or underwater feel when experiencing these plants. Although not as otherworldly in stature as some of its counterparts, a bold and stately prominance can be observed, bolstered with perhaps the most formidable defenses among its relatives.

OPUNTIA BASILARIS

Botanical Name: Opuntia Basilaris

Common Names: Beavertail Prickly Pear

Alternate Botanical Names: n/a

Visual Characteristics: This plant one of most ubiquitously recognized Cactus species, in spite of its extra low profile. Its segments are pad like, green, acceted with shades of gray, and covered in small spines known to botany as Glochids. Environmental factors can affect their pads. Dry seasons bring wither and shrivel, while temperature can change its colors. After rainy seasons, the pads begin to swell and new growths emerge on top of existing pads. Gorgeous magenta flowers bloom in spring. 

Native To 29 Palms: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common

Occurance In Rural Areas: Common

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Some native communities relied on Beavertail Prickly Pair as a main source of sustinance. Similar to its Cylindropuntia cousins, the unbloomed flower growths were gathered to be cooked, or cured and placed in stores for the future. The seeds were ground into meal. 

Sentiments: Sat so flat on mat of mud, Molded mounds moored from a flood, fold and peel in heat so dry, rains they wait in sky so sly.

CHILOPSIS LINEARIS

Botanical Name: Chilopsis Linearis

Common Names: Desert Willow

Alternate Botanical Names: Bignonia Linearis, Chilopsis Saligna

Visual Characteristics: Often tree like, with intricate weeping branches. They seem to hover in the breeze, as if sailing over gravity rather than completely succumbing to its infallible will. Pinkish inflorescences followed by thin green pods wave in the wisp of wind. After the pods split and release their seeds, many turn brown and remain in marcescent fashion, further illuminating the plants silhoutte. Those which do not remain attached flutter earthbound in dense congregations near the trunk, scattering sparsely as outward they land.

Native To 29 Palms: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common

Occurance In Rural Areas: Common

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Many The branches were used for small tools, weapons and equipment. Parts of the plant were also implemented to treat fungal infections, respitory ailments and small lacerations. 

Sentiments: Leaves they linger leering ground, some defy the laws they bound, The pull so full oh hear it call, still they stand and sweetly stall, In the night her soil seeps, And flowers bloom breach its reach. 

PSOROTHAMNUS SPINOSUS

Botanical Name: Psorothamnus Spinosus

Common Names: Smoke Tree, Smokethorn

Alternate Botanical Names: Dalea Spinosa

Visual Characteristics: Freaquently occuring alongside Larrea Tridentata, Senegalia Greggii parkinsonia species, and other 29 Palms desert denizens. Young plants appear as small grey spiny growths, acconpanied by few, small, leaf like sprouts. Specimens who mature to tree like status will have portions of their protuberances awash with a grey or brown color, giving weight to its common name. Often times the arid region plays a truly transformative role in the plants morphology, with dryness relegating it to appear as an erect set of dead branches. Mousture will render beautiful purple flowers proliferating from pointy branch tips.

Native To 29 Palms: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common

Occurance In Rural Areas: Common

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Although scholarly articles on smoketrees benefit to traditional desert people seem to be elusive, There are numerous accounts of similar plants being utilized. If species of Parkinsonia [Palo Verde] Chilopsis [Desert Willow] and Prosopis [Mesquite] were included, imagine the like kind uses found for Prorothamnus Spinosis.

Sentiments: Spines and lines ablur with heat, slowing spirits who compete, Some survive this brutal boil, brilliant flowers foil toil.

CYLINDROPUNTIA RAMOSISSIMA

Botanical Name: Cylindropuntia Ramosissima

Common Names: Diamond Cholla

Alternate Botanical Names: Opuntia Ramosissima

Visual Characteristics: Mature plants generally are erect and multi branched. Trunk areas are dark, hardened, and have bark like features, as do most Cylindropuntia. Setting it apart from its relatives are terminal branches with numerous slender segments. All Cholla have raised fleshy bumps on their flesh, termed Tubercles. Further differentating, Diamond Cholla does not have raised tubracles, a trait unique among the Genus. Spectacular blooms of various colors occur in spring. White, spiny, burr like fruits follow. 

Native To 29 Palms: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common

Occurance In Rural Areas: Common

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Native tribes consumed the buds, and also cured them for trade. Meetings of different communities would bring about exchanges of food and supplies not available without bartering.

Sentiments: Ancient tidings transcend writings, timeworn tides traverse earths biding, binding only by the blade, inside our earth the roots are laid older earthly binds and bidings.

CYLINDROPUNTIA ECHINOCARPA

Botanical Name: Cylindropuntia Echinocarpa

Common Names: Silver Cholla, Gold Cholla

Alternate Botanical Names: Opuntia Echinocarpa

Visual Characteristics: New growths of small silvery spines darken into a golden brown as they mature. Enclosed by a thin sheath which easily flakes away, spines are sharp and strong enough to penetrate tough material. Tiny invisible barbs make them challenging to remove. Silver Cholla is among the most abundant cactuses in the region, along with Cylindropuntia Ramosissima. Further away, Buckhorn Cholla holds the thriving title. Where their ranges integrate, differentiation can be daunting unless specimens are in bloom. C. Echinocarpa has vibrant green flowers, similar to the color of its segments, while Buckhorn displays shades of deep red. Identification when not flowering requires more detailed criteria such as tubracle size, number of spines per areole, segment length and branching habits. Another foe in the path of taxonomic accuracy is the tendancy for many Cholla species form natural hybrids, expressing one or more traits of its predicessors. 

Native To 29 Palms: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common

Occurance In Rural Areas: Common

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Numerous accounts depict Cholla buds for food, and plants such as Ocotillo as living fences. Although absent from avalible literature, imagine how the vegatative propagation of Silver Cholla might have been used in the same defensive manner.

Sentiments: Spines and stems are outstretched hands, Pointy pillars fertile lands, dry and spry through wind and fly, high on why the sharp plants spy, try through sly forboding screen, glimpse the flowers gleaming green.

LARREA TRIDENTATA

Botanical Name: Larrea Tridentata

Common Names: Creosote Bush

Alternate Botanical Names: n/a

Visual Characteristics: From a tiny shrub to a 15 foot multi trunked monstrosity, it makes a case for most abundant plant throughout the Mojave Desert. Creosote Bush Scrub, the plant community in which it thrives, extends to other deserts and overlapping mountain biomes. Part of its success might be attributed to older specimens creating a ring like arrangement of new growths through vegitative reproduction. These Clonial Colonies are thought to be among the oldest living organisms of Earth, witnessing events in excess of 10,000 years past.

 Native To 29 Palms: Yes

Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common

Occurance In Rural Areas: Common

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Prepared to treat a variety of ailments, including genital disease, envenomation, disorder of the lungs, sore muscles and menstrual cramps.

Sentiments: The king of the desert with a crown of gold, resistant to sunburn resiliant to cold, as high as a mountain as low as a lake, as hard as the stones dislodged only by quake.

CYLINDROPUNTIA FULGIDA

Botanical Name: Cylindropuntia Fulgida

Common Names: Chain Fruit Cholla, Jumping Cholla

Alternate Botanical Names: Opuntia Fulgida

Visual Characteristics: Segments appear thorny with long radiating spines and prominent, plump tuberacles. They sit atop older, trunk like growths which darken, harden, and gnarl as they mature. Flowers bloom in beautiful shades of purple for one day and then wilt. The flower bud eventually swells into a fleshy fruit, out of which a new flower forms. This process is repeated and can form long chains, often in prolific quantity. This species also seems to reproduce vegitatively with more success and speed than other relatives in the area. 

Native To 29 Palms: No
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common

Occurance In Rural Areas: Rare

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Some spiritual festivals held by native tradition involved multiple gatherers combining their harvests for a grand feast of roasted Cholla buds. Any surplus were cured and saved for less abundant times.

Sentiments: Far from home by roam be brought, land so new by few be sought, fur or hide or skin they travel, and unravel in the gravel.

CYLINDROPUNTIA FULGIDA VARIETY MAMILLATA

Botanical Name: Cylindropuntia Fulgida Variety Mamillata

Common Names: Boxing Glove Cholla

Alternate Botanical Names: Opuntia Fulgida Variety Mamillata

Visual Characteristics: Different in form than your average Cholla with curved, sometimes oddly shaped segments, some with few spines. Prolific in both its continued growth from established specimens, and its ability to reproduce vegetatively. This is a great attribute for a plant to have in the proper environment, however those same qualities make it an invasive species in some parts of the world.

Native To 29 Palms: No
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Uncommon

Occurance In Rural Areas: Rare

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Some tribes kept track of Cholla growth habits, and harvested accordingly. The sought after item was flower buds just before blooming. When eaten, the flower organs within had a pronounced taste.

Sentiments: Once a tail to two were told, in Joshua Tree during time of old, Ramosissima and she danced in unity, until fun became one and spout out a new tree.

CYLINDROPUNTIA SCORPIONIS

Botanical Name: Cylindropuntia Scorpionis
Common Names: Scorpions Cholla
Alternate Botanical Names: n/a

Visual Characteristics: Spines are long, radial, and intermittent, branching habits dense and numerous, traits reminiscent of Cylindropuntia Ramosissima. Pronounced tubercles, branching habit, and tendency for segments to droop are similar to C. Fulgida. Segment thickness, flowers, and fruits exhibit characteristics in between the two hypothesized parents.

Native To 29 Palms: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Rare

Occurance In Rural Areas: Rare

Use by Indigenous Cultures: This specific hybrid is assumed to be a newer development and might have come to life after the establishment of 29 Palms as a town. However, there is abundant information on native cultures and their use of other Cylindropuntia.

Sentiments: Transforming the casual eye into those that can differentiate a few Cholla species can take months of immersive observation, and often revision of taxonomic notions.