Parkinsonia microphylla

Little-leaved palo verde, Little-Leaved Palo Verde

Family: Fabaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Little-leaved palo verde is a California native shrub found in desert regions on rock slopes at elevations around 600 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces cream-white flowers with delicate, widely ovate banner petals approximately 10 to 14 millimeters long. Growing as a small tree 3 to 9 meters tall, it features distinctive broom-like branches with ascending or spreading form and thorn-tipped ends. Its yellow-green leaves are composed of a single pair of primary leaflets with 8 to 16 secondary leaflets, each just 1 to 5 millimeters long and typically early-deciduous. The fruit develops as a brown pod less than 11 centimeters long, with a distinctive beak-like tip that often ends in a spine.

Habitat: rock slopes

Bloom period: Apr-May (generally 2 weeks after

Elevation: +- 600 m.

Bioregions: D

California counties: San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.