Bignoniaceae

Catalpa Family

Desert Willow

FAMILY: Catalpa family (Bignoniaceae) – Chilopsis genus.

SPECIES: Desert willow or catalpa (Chilopsis linearis (Cav.) Sweet).

TO UTILIZE AS FOOD: Flowers and young seedpods of desert willow are edible. Plus, a medicinal tea can be brewed from the inner bark, leaves, and flowers. Desert willow is common across the Southwest. It’s a reliable resource, but whether or not it’s safe seems to be a mystery.

Flowers of desert willow are fragrant and taste reasonably good. They’re suitable for soups or salads. Calyces are astringent and best removed. Corollas are much less astringent. Cooking eliminates most of the fragrance and astringency. It also changes the delicate texture to a skin-like consistency. Harvesting the flowers is easy. However, beware of rather large bees that can fit inside these flowers completely hidden from view. Indiscriminately grabbing a handful of desert willow flowers carries a certain amount of risk, as the author can attest to! Overall, desert willow flowers are a decent vegetable.

Seedpods of desert willow are edible when young and tender. After reaching about 6-9 cm in length, they become tough, stringy, and unsuitable for consumption. Fully mature pods are dry and filled with inedible seeds. Only the youngest pods have value to foragers. Raw pods taste rather unappealing. After brief boiling, the flavor is faintly reminiscent of green beans combined with a character unique to desert willows and a bitter overtone. The resulting broth tastes better than the pods. The broth captures a complex sweetness, while bitterness remains trapped in the pods. It’s definitely suitable for soups. Overall, desert willow seedpods are a decent wild food.

NOTES: Desert willow was utilized primarily by the Cahuilla Indians of southern California. They called the tree “qaankish” and harvested the fresh flowers and young seedpods when these parts were available, which was anytime from spring to autumn depending on rainfall. Despite the abundance of desert willow, the Cahuilla Indians did not consider it a major food source. Apparently, no other tribes utilized it as food, which could imply that better resources were available or that it cannot be eaten in meal-size amounts on a regular basis. Desert willow thrives in the Kane Springs Valley of southern Nevada, where I had the opportunity to try the flowers. The selection of wild foods is rather limited at that location, but the undeveloped landscape spanning the horizon has an unspoiled purity. The nearby Tule Desert offered me some young desert willow seedpods. Considering that most Native Americans didn’t utilize this tree as food, or those that did considered it a minor resource, modern-day foragers would be wise to heed these native ways.

IDENTIFICATION: Only 1 species of the Chilopsis genus occurs in the United States. Desert willows (C. linearis) are easy to recognize. Despite the name, they’re not even related to willows. Although for most of the year, they do look like willows. Obvious differences are seen in the flowers. Desert willows are beautiful in bloom. The profusions of flowers display a stunning combination of white and purple with yellow highlights. Desert willows are common in sandy washes throughout the deserts.

Description of desert willow (Chilopsis linearis): FORM thornless, deciduous shrub or tree up to 9 meters tall; LEAVES simple; usually alternate; sessile; blades linear, 3-15 cm long; margins entire; FLOWERS irregular, perfect, ovary superior, showy, fragrant, and arranged in terminal racemes; calyces consisting of 2 united sepals; corollas tubular, 2-lipped, 5-lobed, white to purple and usually with yellow highlights; pistils 1; styles 1; stigmas 2-lobed; stamens 5, of which only 4 bear anthers; FRUITS capsules long linear; seeds with tufts of hairs on each end (comose); HABITAT deserts from Texas to California, especially along washes; blooming May to August. NOTES: Two subspecies are recognized, linearis of the Chihuahuan Desert with sticky leaves, and arcuata of the Sonoran and Mojave deserts without sticky leaves.

REFERENCES: Desert willow (Chilopsis linearis): inner bark (tea) Heatherley (pp. 76-77); leaves (tea) Heatherley (pp. 76-77); flowers and immature seedpods Bean (p. 53), Ebeling (pp. 390-391), and Moerman (p. 81).