Desert Plants

Cactus - Grasses - Shrubs - Trees - Wildflowers

What's Blooming - Wildflower Reports

Quick Links by Type of Plant

Wildflowers | Cactus & Succulents | Trees, Shrubs

How Do Plants Survive the Desert? -- Desert flora have adapted to the extremes of heat and aridity by using both physical and behavioral mechanisms, much like desert animals. The ingenuity and variety of these many adaptations are explored in Desert Plant Survival and the Desert Food Chain. Below are links to the flora found in the deserts, with photos and information about each plant.

What Plants Live in the Desert? -- Plants that live in the desert include cactus such as cholla and saguaro, wildflowers like desert paintbrush and phacelia, trees and shrubs like ocotillo Joshua trees, and palo verde trees, and yucca and agave. See the list below for more!

What's Blooming Now - Check the Wildflower Reports

 

Desert Flora:
Wildflowers | Cactus & Succulents | Trees, Shrubs & Grasses
Gardening & Related Articles

 

WILDLFLOWERS

Alkali Mariposa Lily Alkali Phacelia Antelope Bush Apache Plume Arizona Poppy Asian Mustard Aven Nelson's Phacelia Beautiful Centaury (Canchalagua) Big Sagebrush Bigelow's Monkeyflower Bitter Root Blacktack Phacelia Bladderpod Blazing Star Blue Phacelia Blue Eyed Grass Blue Flax Booth's Sun Cup Bristly Langloisia Brittlebush Broad-Leaf Aliciella Broad-Leaf Gilia Brown-Eyed Evening Primrose Burrobush, Burro Weed Button Brittlebush Button Encelia California Buckeye California Fuschia California Milkweed California Poppy Caltha-leafed Phacelia Canaigre Dock Canterbury Bells Caterpillar Phacelia Cave Primrose Chaparral Mallow Charlotte's Phacelia Charming Centaury (Canchalagua) Checker Fiddleneck Cheesebush, Burrobrush Chia Chinchweed Chinese Parsley Chocolate Drops Chuparosa Cliffrose Clustered Broom-Rape Cold-desert Phlox Common Muilla Common Yellow Monkeyflower Cooper's Dogweed Coulter's Jewelflower Coyote Melon Cream Cups Crimson Columbine Crowned Muilla Daisy Desertstar Datura (POISONOUS) Death Valley Monkeyflower Desert Bitterbrush Desert Bluebells Desert Broom Rape Desert Candle Desert Chicory Desert Christmas Tree Desert Dandelion Desert Five-Spot Desert Globemallow Desert Holly Desert Indian Paintbrush Desert Indian Tobacco Desert Larkspur Desert Lily Desert Lupine

Desert Marigold Desert Mariposa Lily Desert Milkweed Desert Paintbrush Desert Peach Desert Penstemon Desert Pincushion Desert Poppy Desert Primrose Desert Purple Mat Desert Sage Desert Spring Parsley Desert Star Desert Star-Vine Desert Sunflower Desert Willow Devil's Lettuce Dogbane (POISONOUS) Downy Dalea Devil’s Claw Dune Evening Primrose Dunes Sunflower Eaton Firecracker, Eaton Penstemon Fairy Duster Fiddleneck Flaxleaf Monardella Freckled Milkvetch Fremont's Monkeyflower Fremont's Phacelia Filaree Storksbill Fringed Amaranth Fringed Onion Ghost Flower Golden Desert Snapdragon Gooding's Verbena Gray Ball Sage Gravel Ghost Great Basin Woollystar Ground Cherry Hairy Wild Cabbage Heartleaf Sun Cup Hooker's Evening Primrose Hop Sage Hummingbird Trumpet Indian Paintbrush Indian Tobacco Jewelflower Jimson Weed (POISONOUS) Kelso Creek Monkeyflower Lacy Phacelia Layne Locoweed Lobeleaf Groundsel Loco Weed Mariposa Lily Martin's Paintbrush Mexican Whorled Milkweed Miner's Lettuce Mojave Aster Mojave Beardtongue Mojave Hole-in-the-Sand Plant Mojave Indian Paintbrush Mojave Indigo Bush Mojave Monkeyflower Mojave Prickly Poppy Mojave Sun Cup Narrow Leaf Milkweed Nevada Onion Notch-leaved Phacelia Owl's Clover (Castilleja exserta ssp. exserta) Pale-Yellow-Sun-Cup Palmer's Penstemon Panamint Daisy Panamint Mariposa Lily

Paperbag Bush Parish's Monkeyflower Parry's Nolina (Parry's Beargrass) Pedicellate Phacelia Pink Phlox Plantago patagonica Plummer's Mariposa Lily Poodle Dog Bush Popcorn Flower Prickly Poppies Prince's Rock Cress Purple Mat, Purplemat Purple Owl's Clover (Castilleja exserta ssp. venusta) Purple Sand Food Pygmy Poppy Rattlesnake Weed Rattleweed Red Maids Rock Cress Rock Daisy Rose Heath Round Leafed Phacelia, Roundleaf Phacelia Rush Milkweed San Bernardino Mountains Liveforever Sand Blazing Star Sand Pygmyweed Sand Verbena Sapphire Woollystar Scale Bud Scaly-stemmed Sand Plant Scarlet Bugler Scorpionweed Sea Muilla Shockley Evening Primrose Showy Four O'Clock Showy Milkweed Silky Dalea Skeleton Milkweed Soft Prairie Clover Spanish Needle Spectacle Pod Specter Phacelia Suksdorf's Monkeyflower Tree Poppy Tree Tobacco Turtleback, Velvet Turtleback Twining Snapdragon Washoe Phacelia Western Desert Penstemon Western Wallflower Western Forget-Me-Not White Bear Poppy White Bursage White Fiesta Flower White Mallow White Sage White Wooly Daisy Whitemargin Beardtongue, White-margined Beardtongue Wild Heliotrope Wild Rhubarb Winding Mariposa Lily Wishbone Bush Woody Bottle Washer Woolly Daisy Woolly Marigold Yellow Beeplant Yellow Cups Yellow Desert Evening Primrose Yellow Nightshade Yellow Pincushion Yerba Mansa

 

 

 

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CACTUS & SUCCULENTS

Barrel Cactus Beavertail Cactus Century Plant Chain Fruit Cholla Cholla Cactus Claret Cup Cactus Desert Christmas Cactus

Datil Yucca Fishhook Cactus Golden Torch Cactus Hedgehog Cactus Kingcup Cactus Mojave Mound Cactus Mojave Yucca Night-Blooming Cereus

Organ Pipe Cactus Prickly Pear Cactus Saguaro Cactus Senita Cactus Soaptree Yucca

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TREES, SHRUBS & GRASSES

Bastard Toadflax Crucifixion Thorn California Fan Palm Cocklebur Cottonwood Creosote Bush Desert Lavender Desert Willow Elephant Tree

Greasewood Indigo Bush Joshua Tree Juniper Mormon Tea Ocotillo Mesquite Tree Palo Verde Tree Poison Ivy

Ponderosa Pine Four-Wing Saltbush Showy Milkweed Smoke Tree Stinging Nettles Tumbleweed Whitethorn Acacia Winterfat

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DESERT GARDENING

Gardening the Desert in Southern New Mexico How to Attract Hummingbirds and Butterflies to Your Garden My Brown Thumb: Attempts at Gardening in the Desert Why is the Desert Turning Brown: Overseeding

Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden The Arboretum at Flagstaff Tucson Botanical Gardens Arboretums & Botanical Gardens of Arizona

Arboretum at Arizona State University Tohono Chul Park in Tucson Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Boyce Thompson Arboretum

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Chihuahuan Desert | Great Basin Desert |  Mojave Desert | Sonoran Desert

RELATED INFORMATION

Wildflower Articles When Will the Wildflowers Bloom? Favorite Desert Wildflowers 4 Drives into the Heart of the Desert Wildflower Country Wildflower Reports Wildflower Field Guide Curious Wildflower Names Desert Seeds The Desert in Bloom Related Books - Store Wildflower Reports

Other Related Articles Desert Food Chain Plant Classifications Desert Landscapes Indian Uses of Desert Plants Indian Uses of Desert Plants (book) Desert Medicinal Plants Water Conservation Gardening Desert Fan Palm Oases The Saguaro Desert Cacti Three Desert Oases On the Trail of the Creosote Bush Desert Varnish The Desert's Lichen Crust Desert Date Delights Prickly Pear Cactus Products Chiles of the Southwest Life on Desert Sand Dunes Related Books - Store

General Information

Animal Classification:
Putting the Plants and Animals in Their Places.

Desert Animal Survival

Desert Food Chain

Desert Food Chain: An Introduction

Spring Rattles In: Rattlesnake Season

Insect Diversity

Discover the World of Insects

Debunking Myths About Rattlesnakes, Scorpions and Tartantulas.

Common Reptiles of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Hibernation: The Deep Sleep

Migration

Cetaceans: Marine Mammals in the Sea of Cortez

Hantavirus: Virus Carried by Deer Mice

Looking for Birds in the Southwest? Follow the Water

 

Videos of Desert Animals

Why K-12 Students Read DesertUSA.com

 

The Desert Environment
The North American Deserts
Desert Geological Terms