Calliandra eriophylla

Last updated

Calliandra eriophylla
Pink Fairy-duster - Flickr - treegrow (2).jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
Clade: Mimosoid clade
Genus: Calliandra
Species:
C. eriophylla
Binomial name
Calliandra eriophylla
Synonyms [2]
  • Anneslia eriophylla(Benth.) Britton
  • Calliandra chamaedrysEngelm.
  • Calliandra confertaA.Gray
  • Feuilleea eriophyllaKuntze

Calliandra eriophylla, commonly known as fairy duster, is a low spreading shrub which is native to deserts and arid grasslands in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico.

Contents

The flowers, which appear between late winter and late spring, have dense clusters of pale to deep pink stamens and are about 5 cm (2 in) wide.

The shrub is usually between 20 and 50 cm (8 and 20 in) high and has bipinnate leaves.

Alternative common names for this species include mock mesquite and mesquitella.

Description

The Calliandra genus has over 250 species, with only three being native to the southwest. Found in regions such as Northern Mexico Sonoran and Chihuahuan [3] deserts along with Southern California and Southwestern New Mexico. This spectacular plant gets its name as a reference to its "showy appearance". The Calliandra plants thrive in the heat and once established can endure extreme droughts. They can survive being watered as little as once to twice a week.

Name origin

The genus name, Calliandra, means "beautiful-stamens". The species name, eriophylla is Greek for "wooly leaf". Some of its common names are fairy duster, false mesquite, stickpea, hairy-leaved Calliandra, pink mimosa, pink-flowered acacia, mesquitilla, plumita, gavia, huajillo, cabeza angel, cabelleto de angel, cabeze de angel, and cosahui. [4]

Identification

Typically, the Calliandra is a low growing plant, prostrate toward upper elevation, and at lower elevation grows erect and bushy. The Calliandra grows as a loosely branched shrub that once matured, can reach heights of four to five feet in height and twice as wide in width. Pruning for this particular plant is not necessary; however, if one chooses to prune it can result in making the plant much denser. Found in this plant are spherical flowers found in cream, pink, or white one and one quarter to two inches in diameter containing several clusters of flowers with long slender stamens. The stamens in the plant are usually straight but occasionally found curled.

Habitat- growth habitat

Calliandra eriophylla usually grows in dry areas. The fairy duster can survive with little water, and with varied amounts of exposure to the sun. However, the plant blooms more when it is exposed to the sun than when it has little exposure to the sun. The fairy duster depends on soil that is dry, contains gravel, and its naturally alkaline. [5] It is usually found on open hillsides [3] and desert washes and slopes that fall below 5,000 feet (1,500 m). These plants can grow to be up to 2 to 4 feet (60 to 120 cm) wide and 1 to 3 feet tall. During the spring and summer the plant begins to bloom pale to vibrant pink flowers. [6]

Distribution

Calliandra eriophylla is distributed across a wide range of arid and dry areas. It is most commonly located in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. This includes places like southern California, New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. These plants are native to the Arizona region and as such can survive in desert areas with minimal water needs. This allows it to thrive in areas like the Mohave Desert [7] and Sonoran desert [7] and other areas with weather similar to that of Southern Arizona. The preferred elevation for growth of fairy duster is between 1,000 and 5,000 feet (300 and 1,500 m). [8]

Seeding and pollination

The Calliandra eriophylla is fairly common in the deserts of the southwestern United States. Therefore, it has a number of different pollinators. Some of the primary pollinators are bees, flies, butterflies, and hummingbirds. [7] The fairy duster is able to attract these pollinators because it produces a considerable amount of nectar of about 2.17 mg of sugar per flower. [7] The pollination allows the seed pods to begin to grow. Eventually when they reach maturity the pods, which are dehiscent, [8] will break open and launch the seeds in an attempt to propagate the plant. One of the main threats to the seeds is that many animals eat the seeds before they can develop including small birds like quails [7] which may even pry open unpopped pods. [9]

Animals

The fairy duster flowers are a pale pink color and are an attraction to animals that live in the desert. This plant becomes a source of food for the deer that roam in the desert or hillsides. The plant also attracts butterflies, bees and hummingbirds for nectar when the flowers are blooming. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonoran Desert</span> Desert in Mexico and the United States

The Sonoran Desert is a hot desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States. It is the hottest desert in both Mexico and the United States. It has an area of 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 sq mi).

<i>Parkinsonia florida</i> Species of tree native to the Sonoran Desert

Parkinsonia florida, the blue palo verde, is a species of palo verde native to the Sonoran Deserts in the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico. Its name means "green pole or stick" in Spanish, referring to the green trunk and branches, that perform photosynthesis.

<i>Prosopis glandulosa</i> Species of tree

Neltuma glandulosa, formerly Prosopis glandulosa, commonly known as honey mesquite, is a species of small to medium-sized, thorny shrub or tree in the legume family (Fabaceae).

<i>Canotia holacantha</i> Genus of flowering plants

Canotia holacantha, also known as crucifixion thorn or simply canotia, is a flowering shrub / small tree in the family Celastraceae.

<i>Vachellia constricta</i> Species of legume

Vachellia constricta, also known commonly as the whitethorn acacia, is a shrub native to Mexico and the Southwestern United States.

<i>Prosopis velutina</i> Species of tree

Prosopis velutina, commonly known as velvet mesquite, is a small to medium-sized tree. It is a legume adapted to a dry, desert climate. Though considered to be a noxious weed in states outside its natural range, it plays a vital role in the ecology of the Sonoran Desert.

<i>Penstemon parryi</i> Species of flowering plant

Penstemon parryi, the Parry's penstemon, Parry's beardtongue or desert penstemon, is a wildflower native to the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona and northern Mexico. It is a perennial that blooms in March and April. In the wild, plants flower in their second year. In cultivation, flowering is often achieved in the first year if seed is planted in the autumn.

<i>Calliandra californica</i> Species of legume

Calliandra californica, the Baja fairy duster, is an evergreen, woody shrub, native to Baja California, Mexico. In Spanish, the plant is also known vernacularly as tabardillo,zapotillo or chuparosa. The flowers, which appear in early summer, have clusters of red stamens. The shrub is usually 0.6–1.8 metres in height and has bipinnate leaves. The leaves have been described as "fern-like." Leaves close at night time.

<i>Hibiscus denudatus</i> Species of flowering plant

Hibiscus denudatus is a perennial shrub of the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is in the rosemallow genus, Hibiscus.

<i>Neogaerrhinum filipes</i> Species of flowering plant

Neogaerrhinum filipes, synonym Antirrhinum filipes, is an annual species of North American flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae. It is known by the common name yellow twining snapdragon. This herbaceous plant is native to deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it is common.

<i>Rafinesquia neomexicana</i> Species of plant

Rafinesquia neomexicana is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Common names include desert chicory, plumeseed, or New Mexico plumeseed. It has white showy flowers, milky sap, and weak, zigzag stems, that may grow up through other shrubs for support. It is an annual plant found in dry climate areas of the southwestern deserts of the US and northwestern deserts of Mexico.

<i>Phoradendron californicum</i> Species of flowering plant

Phoradendron californicum, the desert mistletoe or mesquite mistletoe, is a hemiparasitic plant native to southern California, Nevada, Arizona, Sonora, Sinaloa and Baja California. It can be found in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts at elevations of up to 1400 m.

<i>Tetracoccus hallii</i> Species of shrub

Tetracoccus hallii is a species of flowering shrub in the family Picrodendraceae, known by the common names Hall's shrubby-spurge and Hall's tetracoccus.

<i>Mimosa aculeaticarpa</i> Species of plant

Mimosa aculeaticarpa is a species of woody shrub in the family Fabaceae. It is commonly known as the catclaw mimosa or the wait-a-minute bush, and is endemic to upland regions of Mexico and the Southwestern United States, particularly Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

<i>Lycium berlandieri</i> Species of flowering plant

Lycium berlandieri is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family known by the common name Berlandier's wolfberry. It is native to Mexico and the south-western United States from Arizona to Texas.

<i>Lycium pallidum</i> Species of flowering plant

Lycium pallidum is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family known by the common names pale wolfberry and pale desert-thorn. It is native to northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. In Mexico it can be found in Sonora, Chihuahua, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosi. In the United States it occurs from California to Texas and as far north as Utah and Colorado.

<i>Ambrosia salsola</i> Species of flowering plant

Ambrosia salsola, commonly called cheesebush, winged ragweed, burrobush, white burrobrush, and desert pearl, is a species of perennial shrub in the family Asteraceae native to deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.

<i>Scutellaria mexicana</i> Species of shrub

Scutellaria mexicana, commonly known by variants on bladder sage or paperbag bush, is a shrub of the mint family Lamiaceae distinctive for its calyx lobes that develop into small bag- or bladder-like shells around the fruits.

<i>Aliciella latifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Aliciella latifolia, also known as broad-leaved gilia, is a foul smelling annual plant in the Phlox family (Polemoniaceae) found in deserts of the southwestern United States.

<i>Eriogonum abertianum</i> Species of wild buckwheat

Eriogonum abertianum, with the common names Abert's buckwheat and Abert wild buckwheat, is a species of buckwheats in the family Polygonaceae.

References

  1. "NatureServe Explorer 2.0". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  2. "The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species". Theplantlist.org. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Fairy Duster Wildflower". Desertusa.com. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  4. Posey Amala, Native Plants of Arizona
  5. 1 2 "Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - the University of Texas at Austin". Wildflower.org.
  6. "Facts About Fairy Dusters". Homeguides.sfgate.com. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Calliandra eriophylla". Archived from the original on 2012-12-23. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
  8. 1 2 "Calliandra eriophylla". 11 March 2015. Archived from the original on 11 March 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  9. Laura Murphy. "Let a Fairy Dust Your Landscape" (PDF). College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, The University of Arizona . Retrieved 24 May 2022.

Other sources