Desert Plants
The Desert Plants of El Retiro, ordered from most common to least common.
Aloe Vera
Aloe Vera
Range: Aloe vera, also known as the true or medicinal aloe, is a species of succulent plant in the genus Alo Ce that is believed to have originated in the Sudan. Aloe vera grows naturally in arid climates and is widely distributed in Africa, India, and other arid areas.
Info: The species is frequently cited as being used in herbal medicine. Aloe vera forms arbuscular mycorrhiza, a symbiosis that allows the plant better access to mineral nutrients in soil.
Fun Fact: Aloe vera is found in many consumer products including beverages, skin lotion, cosmetics, or ointments for minor burns and sunburns.
Agave/Century Plant/Maguey/American Aloe
Agave Tequilana
Range: Mexico, Southwestern United States, and Tropical South America
Info: Its sap can be used as sugar/sweeteners in cooking and be used in a breakfast meal to serve as a “binding agent”. It is also used to produce the alcoholic beverage tequila.
Prickly Pear Cactus
Opuntia
Range: Like most true cactus species, prickly pears are native only to the Americas. Through human actions, they have since been introduced to many other areas of the world. In the United States, prickly pears are native to many areas of the arid Western United States, including the lower elevations of the Rocky Mountains.
Info: Regular looking cactus with medium length spines. Prickly pears also produce a fruit, commonly eaten in Mexico and in the Mediterranean region, known as tuna.
Fun Fact: In 16th century Europe, Prickly pear cactus quickly became a widespread invasive weed, eventually converting 101,000 sq miles of farming land into an impenetrable green jungle of prickly pear, in places 20 feet high. Scores of farmers were driven off their land by what they called the "green hell"; their abandoned homes were crushed under the cactus growth.
Jade Plant
Crassula ovata
Range: It is native to South Africa and Mozambique, and is common as a houseplant worldwide. Much of its popularity stems from the low levels of care needed.
Info: The Jade plant is a succulent plant with small pink or white flowers. The jade plant requires little water and can survive in most indoor conditions.
Dwarf Palmetto
Sabal minor
Range: It is native to the deep southeastern and south-central United States and northeastern Mexico.
Info: Sabal minor, commonly known as the dwarf palmetto, is a small species of palm. It is naturally found in a diversity of habitats, including maritime forests, swamps, floodplains, and occasionally on drier sites. It is often found growing in calcareous marl soil. Sabal minor is one of the most frost and cold tolerant among North American palms.
Fan Palm Tree
Washingtonia
Range: Native to the southwestern United States (in southern California, southwest Arizona, Nevada, and Texas) and northwest Mexico (in northern Baja California and Sonora). Both Washingtonia species are commonly cultivated across the Southern United States, the Middle East, southern Europe, and north Africa, where they have greatly hybridized.
Info: They are fan palms (subfamily Coryphoideae), with the leaves with a bare petiole terminating in a rounded fan of numerous leaflets. The flowers are in a dense inflorescence, with the fruits maturing into a small blackish-brown drupe 6–10 mm diameter with a thin layer of sweet flesh over the single seed.
Fun fact: Eaten by triceratops. The fruit is edible, and was used by Native American people as a minor food source. They are also eaten by birds, which disperse the seeds in their droppings after digesting the fruit pulp.