They grace trails, hills in wildflowers' absence

Ocotillos are coming to the chromatic rescue.

The hearty plants - with long spiny stems and not much respect for drought - are brightening many trails and hillsides with brilliant red blooms.

"I've never seen them fail - even in Yuma after a year with no rain," said Mark Dimmitt, director of natural history at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Dimmitt said ocotillos "flower dependably in April in Tucson" but also often bloom earlier and later in the year.

"There are usually a few that jump the gun and flower as early as January, and a few flower in summer," he said.

What is it about ocotillos that lets them thumb their thorns at drought and fly their colors while poppies, penstemons and other wildflowers poop out?

It's because they are unusual plants with some metabolic advantages.

Ocotillos, which are not cacti, are in a small family of plants containing one genus and perhaps fewer than a dozen species, Dimmitt said.

"I would describe ocotillo as a woody shrub, with very odd form, that acts as if it was a succulent," he said. "The succulent traits are the very shallow root system, ability to bloom when the soil is dry, and their idling metabolism."

That means ocotillos are never completely dormant.

"So they can respond rapidly to a rainfall event," Dimmitt said. "Ocotillo is a champ in this department, producing new leaves only two days after a summer rain."

Many other plants, by comparison, go into deep dormancy during dry seasons and take a couple of weeks to green up after a rain, Dimmitt said.

Ocotillos, with blooms at the tips of their long gangly stems, can't produce carpets of color like poppies and other annual wildflowers. They put on a more subtle, spread-out show, and their blooms sometimes fade from bright red to less-dazzling hues of orange.

But here's the thing: They show up, rain or shine. And we've had a whole lot of shine going on.

Contact reporter Doug Kreutz at dkreutz@azstarnet.com or at 573-4192.