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arizonacullen

Identify lavender flowered, non-leafed, spiny plant / weed

arizonacullen
13 years ago

Please take a look and let me know if you know the identity of this plant.

I have taken two pictures of this plant, neither of which show the blossoms very well unfortunately.

http://www.linnlogistics.com/images/cullen/img_1099.jpg

http://www.linnlogistics.com/images/cullen/img_1100.jpg

This plant has no leaves (or at least not flat ones). It has many very small spines (little bitty thorns) all over it. It seems to grow about one foot tall and spreads out only about 2 feet from it's root. At the very top of the center portion of the stem it has a very small tulip-like blossom about 1/4" long and only about the thickness of the stem wide. The inside of the stems and the tubular projections (instead of leaves) is spongy like cork, white in color, and hollow in the center.

What first intrigued me about this plant is that I have lived in this area (Kingman, Arizona in the Mohave Desert) for around 30 years and this is the first year that I have seen (or noticed) this plant. I was additionally interested by the lack of flat leaves and presence instead of tubular projections where the photosynthesis presumably takes place.

I'm most interested to see if anyone else has seen and / or can identify this plant.

Thank you!

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