Wow--that was fast! That certainly looks like it, and after googling species photos, I sort of dimly recall that it had a few little bell-shaped flowers once that turned into berries. Thank you!

Hop bush is a great suggestion (Dodonea viscosa and Dodonea viscosa 'purpurea'- the purple tends to come out when chilled - it's also a bit more frost sensitive, but next to a western wall it should be fine). I also love the Fern of the Desert (also called Fern tree, Fern bush, etc. - Lysiloma thornberi). You can also get the soft, lacy look from Guajillo. They are all very drought tolerant. If you want some pretty blooms and a bright green leaf, I would suggest the desert willow, Chilopsis linearis. It has the added benefit of being deciduous, so that same western wall can warm your home in the winter. I went down to Baker's last spring and looked at some of their trees, with the same parameters in mind - a number o the Eucalyptus are small, with yellow or red blooms. I bought a mulga - it has silvery leaves and bright yellow blooms that look just like catepillars. It grows to about 15 feet. Lemon Euc and Forman's Euc are two more you might want to look at. There's tons more, we're lucky to have a large number of smaller trees. Don't forget the Texas Mountain Laurel (both green and silver leaf forms) many of the Acacias are smaller trees, the Screwbean Mesquite has very interesting seed pods, Caesalpinia cacalaco, mexicana & gilliesii are all very pretty, blooming trees. HTH!

bahia - thank you for your many wonderful suggestions, I will research all of them. The 'Charles Grimaldi' is beautiful and just the size I'm looking for. I might limb it up even more to form a more umbrella-like canopy for a more see-through structure. I'm also considering a large Schefflera tree like the one we have in a similar spot elsewhere in our backyard. It doesn't flower (at least not yet). It did have some black leaves when our winter temps dipped to 26 degrees one year, but recovered nicely.

Writersblock, to really give you any suggestions we need more info. How close to the dunes? Is the area on the land side of buildings or homes or on the beach side? What zone? Here are a few suggestions for zone 10. On the dune side your choices are very limited to things like beach sunflower (does great), indian hawthorne, prickly pear (beautiful when it blooms in May), yucca, agave, seagrape and some Kalanchoe as well as sea oats of course. On the land side you have many more choices depending on how far you are from the beach. Wind is actually more of a factor than salt. Things to consider are crinum lily, ixora nora grant, geiger tree (although edges of leaves can brown with severe winds), poinciana and floss silk tree of course although larger than you want. Confederate jasmine can do well with a little protection, and surprisingly, epidendrum radicans (an orange ground orchid) does very well with some salt and wind and blooms about 5 months of the year. Foliage is always necessary though. If not palms, consider cycads. Dioon spinulosum is extremely underused and a very beautiful and interesting, tolerant plant that will last through much abuse. Of course, cardboard palm and coonties are also very tolerant of barrier island conditions. Variegated pittosporum is also a good foliage plant for the conditions. Anna