Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Blue paloverde

Parkinsonia florida

Also called Green Barked Acacia

Blue paloverde
Photo: Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0

Blue paloverde is a drought-deciduous desert tree or large shrub from the Sonoran Desert, grown for its green bark and bright yellow spring flowers. Its key to growing is full sun and very low water once established.

Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply but infrequently, letting the soil dry out fully between waterings; it sheds leaves in dry periods.
Soil
Fast-draining sandy or gravelly soil; avoid heavy clay.
Temperature
Tolerates hot desert summers; protect young plants from frost, roughly below -5 °C.
How easy
Easy
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
SE. California to Arizona and N. Mexico
Climate
desert or dry shrubland

About

Parkinsonia florida, the blue palo verde (syn. Cercidium floridum), is a species of palo verde native to the Sonoran Deserts in the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico. Its name means "green tree" in American Spanish, referring to the green foliage, trunk, and branches, that perform photosynthesis

Where it grows

This plant is primarily found in the Sonoran Colorado Desert of southeastern California, and the Sonoran Deserts of southern Arizona and of northwestern Sonora state (Mexico). It is found predominantly in desert washes or bajadas, a result of its need for water, although occasionally it can be found in creosote desert scrub habitat, accessing seeps in desert hills up to 3,600 feet (1,100 m). Also found in the far eastern Mojave Desert of California in the northern Lower Colorado River Valley, and occasionally in the Mojave's mountains.

Other Parkinsonia plants

Jerusalem thorn · Yellow paloverde · Sonoran Palo Verde

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Parkinsonia florida by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…