Lechugilla
If there was ever a reason to wear hightop, thick hiking boots in the desert, this plant is it. The plant consists of
a rosette of very stiff, sharp, curved daggers that can easily penetrate a tennis shoe and pierce tissue to the bone. The lechugilla is
an indicator plant of the Chihuahuan Desert and a member of the agave (century plant) family. Some might confuse the low growing plant with a small yucca.
However, the lechugilla has a series of inward pointing barbs along the outer margines of its leaves. The yucca does not. Normally, the plant grows only to a height of, perhaps, 12 inches. However, given
sufficient water, the leaves may grow to triple that length.
The plant reproduces by sending out underground runners that sprout new plants along the way. The plant also produces flowers and seeds once in its
lifetime of 10 to 25 years. The final season of its life the plant concentrates all its energy into the production of a tall flower stalk.
Frequently, most of the leaves have turned yellow and dried up before the plant has completed the flowering process.
Native Americans used the plant for fiber.
Ocotillo
During most of the year this large plant looks like little more that a bundle of dead, spiny sticks. However, once the summer rains begin, the ocotillo takes on
an entirely new appearance. Within 2 days of a substantial rain, tiny leaves begin to sprout between the numerous spines. Within a week the
long canes of the plant become a soft green. Almost as fast as the moisture disappears from the soil, the leaves are gone again and the plant becomes
dormant once more. This performance may be repeated several times during the year.
In the spring, the canes are tipped in a brillant red bloom, almost resembling a candle.
Early settlers used the plant's ability to sprout an entirely new plant from a single cane and used the ocotillo as fencing material.
You might say that ocotillo was the original barbed wire.
 Tree Cholla
The cholla is a close relative of the prickly pear cactus. However, rather than flat pads, the plant has cylindrical stems. A tree cholla
may grow to more than six feet in height and grows equally well in deserts, plains and among junipers and pinyon in the moutains.
The cactus is fast growing when compared to most in the family. It has long barb-tipped spines which remain embedded in flesh
should you come into contact with the plant. As with the prickly pears, it also has the microscopic glochids that can make life miserable
for a person.
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