Common Names: TELEGRAPH PLANT, CAMPHOR-WEED Arizona and Texas deserts: (Heterotheca subaxillaris). Pale yellow. March-November. Sunflower family. Size: Grows 2 to 6 feet tall.
The flowers are not particularly attractive, but become conspicuous as the seed-heads develop, because of the white, densely-haired tufts. Stems are tall and straight “like telegraph poles,” and the crushed leaves give off a slight camphor-like odor.
Although the plant occurs from the east coast across the southern portion of the United States, it is found in the desert at elevations between 1,000 and 5,000 feet.
Camphor-weed is a tall, coarse, robust, straight-stemmed plant which is abundant and conspicuous along roads and ditchbanks, and in the open desert following winters of heavy precipitation.
YELLOW
Cercidium floridum
Cercidium microphyllum
Common Names: PALOVERDE, YELLOW PALOVERDE, BLUE PALOVERDE Arizona deserts: (Cercidium microphyllum). Pale yellow. April-May. Arizona desert. (Cercidium floridum). Bright yellow. April-May. Pea family. Size: Green-barked tree up to 25 feet high.
Arizona Paloverdes (meaning green stick) are large shrubs or small trees abundant along washes in the hotter, drier portions of the Sonoran Desert. When in blossom in the springtime, they appear as masses of pale yellow or golden bloom, and are a glorious sight, both as individual trees and massed as borders along the courses of washes which they mark with a line of color winding across the desert floor. During the dry season, they are without leaves, but are readily recognized by the bark, yellowish green in the case of C. microphyllum; blue green in C. floridum.