Smoke Tree in Bloom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMaintaining any Smoke Trees that exist on your land is therefore helpful in maintaining healthy native bee populations which help to ensure the continuation of many native plants as well as important food bearing crop plants.<\/p>\n
The Smoke Tree is native to the dry desert washes of the Colorado Desert in Southern California, the Sonoran Desert in western Arizona, and most of eastern Baja California state including several northern Gulf of California, or Sea of Cortez, islands.<\/p>\n
The tree is common in Joshua Tree National Park.<\/p>\n
A more specific description of the range of the Smoke Tree follows:<\/p>\n
The range is centered north-south along the Lower Colorado River Valley ranging northwest into the eastern Mojave Desert, west into mostly all of the Colorado Desert-(subsection of Sonoran Desert), and east of the Colorado River in southwestern Arizona’s Sonoran Desert.<\/p>\n
To the west in Baja California it borders the western Gulf of California; it occurs on the islands there including Isla \u00c1ngel de la Guarda, but not Tiburon Island. To the east in Sonora, the species ranges into the northwest of the great Gran Desierto de Altar, on the northern shore of the Gulf of California.<\/p>\n
In Arizona the ranges center on the river courses of southwest Arizona, specifically, the Bill Williams River in the north, then the Gila River in the south. The range also extends into extreme southern Nevada, mostly adjacent the Colorado River.<\/p>\nRange Map for Psorothamnus spinosus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIn the wild, Smoke Trees propagate themselves through seed dispersal following the massive bloom cycle in the late spring\/early summer. The seeds tumble down washes with water flows and lodge under rocks at which point the seed will germinate and send down a tap root to seek out a regular water supply. At this time of the Smoke Tree growth cycle there is no visible external foliage, only the tap root. Once the tap root is established the Smoke Tree grows rapidly upward and outward. This reproduction strategy, dependent on water flows to disperse and initiate seed growth, limits the distribution of the Smoke Tree to areas in which water flows at least intermittently throughout the year. If you are fortunate enough to have a Smoke Tree on your property it is sign that, at some time, hopefully in the past, your land was in the path of water flows, including potential flash floods from water deposited higher up in the mountains, potentially well of out sight and sound of the eventual path the water will follow.<\/p>\n
As a tree native to the desert region, the Smoke Tree is a valuable and no-fuss asset to any garden or landscape fortunate enough to feature one. You’d be hard pressed to find a more drought resistant and water-wise tree anywhere. If your land has a Smoke Tree, consider yourself lucky and do not disturb your Smoke Tree but rather let it enjoy its natural life cycle as a desert native.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Known to botanists and other scientists as Psorothamnus spinosus, this California native plant is commonly known by several different, although […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}