One of the sights of late winter is the Retama tree with its green branches and even greener stems. The green is garish.
It’s also called paloverde (green wood) and Jerusalem thorn.
It’s called a tree, and some are 30 feet tall. I don’t think I’ve seen one taller than 10.
It’s a tropical. We’re on the northern edge of its range.
They are just beginning to leaf. Each leaf has twin stems that are about 18 inches long and put on rows of leaflets. The leaflets look like tiny pine needles. One plant I examined had a few leaflets, and another had none.
The leaflets tend to shed in the summer, and those green stems take on the role of leaflets.
The retama usually flower by early May. They have beautiful yellow flowers, five petals each, which give the plant a common Spanish name, lluvia de oro, gold rain.
A few years ago, when we first moved in, I was surprised to see brown-maroon spots on a lot of the flowers. The spots were so distinct I thought they were mirids — common bugs — and took a closer look.
It turns out one of those five petals has a honey gland in its base, which changes color and can become bright red.
But I have to admit it: I was looking through books on insects before I figured it out.
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