Desert Ironwood Fact Sheet

Here in the landscapes of the desert southwest ironwood serves as an excellent evergreen screen against unsightly views and provides cooling shade as it grows.

Desert ironwood fact sheet.

The desert ironwood tree is the only member of the olneya genus. Ironwood tree olneya tesota. This arizona native is known around the world for its dense and heavy wood that is highly valued as quality firewood and as an exceptional woodworking material. It belongs to the fabaceae or pea family.

The desert ironwood only grows in the washes and valleys of the sonoran desert below 2 500 foot elevation. The leaves of the ironwood tree as well as its flowers mirror those of a sweet pea. The roskruge and waterman mountains the silverbell west silverbell and on the fringe the sawtooth mountains. Its name comes from the heavy dense heart wood the tree produces.

Five desert mountain ranges define the monument. Ironwood forest national monument protects a prime example of the sonoran desert with 128 917 acres of mountains and hills scattered amongst broad species rich valleys. Arizona ironwood palo de hierro palo de fierro are some of names that the desert ironwood is known as. Yes desert ironwood can be found in the south western part of arizona.

Dried flower bud is anti dysenteric and used for dysentery with mucus. The ironwood tree only grows in the southwest s sonoran desert. Many species of sonoran wildlife depend on it for survival. The ironwood is an essential.

The sonoran desert is located in southwestern arizona southern california and the northwestern part of mexico. I am from yuma arizona and this stuff is everywhere around here. Only pieces of wood that have fallen off of the remaining tree can be picked up and taken and you may not drag large pieces of wood through the desert or uproot a tree. It ranks among the most ecologically and economically important plant species in the region.

The desert ironwood is a plant found in the sonoran desert. The wood is one of the heaviest in the world. It is one of the biggest and oldest plants growing to heights of 45 feet and persisting in the desert heat for as long as 1 200 years. The tree known in the u s mexico borderlands as desert ironwood or palo fierro olneya tesota is one of many woody legumes found in washes and hillside drainages in the sonoran desert.

It is however protected. The desert ironwood tree grows 20 to 50 feet tall making it the tallest tree in the sonoran desert.