By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on June 25, 2004
Just after we crossed the Pecos River on a recent drive to Big Bend National Park, we started noticing the desert willows (Chilopsis linearis) in full bloom.
The late-spring rains out there had brought on a profuse flowering of the desert willows.
We admired the blooms going and coming.
We returned from that trip to find that, lo and behold, the Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) choice for July is desert willow. That seemed very appropriate to us.
Although not native to the Edwards Plateau, desert willow has proven to be a very drought-tolerant flowering tree for Hill Country yards.
It may grow 35 feet tall, but generally is a smaller multibranched tree that flowers off and on through the summer.
Despite the name, desert willow is not a willow, but the elongate leaves give the tree a willow-like aspect. It is related to the catalpa tree, esperanza (yellow bells), and trumpet creeper, all of which have ruffled tubular flowers.
Desert willow produces showy clusters of blossoms at the ends of branches. Apparently, it has been used as a landscape plant for a long time. On a friend’s ranch in Hays County is an early 1900s house site where two large desert willows still grow.
One has pale-lavender flowers, and the other, pure-white flowers.
Flower color varies in naturally growing desert willows. Some are pale pink or white with purple or pink stripes on the throat.
Others are deep rose or purple with dark-purple mottling.
In today’s nursery trade desert willow is available in a wide variety of selected flower colors, including white (“white storm”), solid dark pink (“dark storm”), and dark purple (“Bubba”).
“Bubba” was found by Paul Cox growing at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, according to Jill Nokes (“How to Grow Native Plants of Texas and the Southwest”).
Deer in our subdivision browse desert willow branches that are not within the protection of a fence. During November, the bucks seem to think the diameter of desert willow branches is just right for rubbing antlers.
Desert willow grows along dry washes and arroyos from Trans-Pecos Texas to California and into Mexico.
In Texas it also is native to northwestern Texas, eastern Central Texas, and parts of South Texas.
Marshall Enquist includes desert willow in “Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country”, because it has escaped cultivation and is “naturalized” to some parts of the Edwards Plateau.
Its native habitat testifies to the fact that desert willow requires little irrigation once it is established.
Desert willow seems to adapt to a variety of soils and sites, but well-drained soil is preferable.
The tree does well in shallow limestone-derived soils.
Desert willow is a fairly fast-growing ornamental tree that is drought tolerant, does okay in poor soil, requires no fertilizer, and blooms in the heat of the summer – the perfect NICE! choice for July.
