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Arizona Gardening

Tree/Shrub ID please

9 years ago

This is a tree/shrub in my neighbor's yard and we have no idea what it is. I like playing the "name that plant" games so I did a fair amount of research and nothing. From a distance I always thought it was a Potato Vine, Solanum Crispum, trained into a shrub but not up close.

It's about 15' tall and 10' wide in a lollypop shape I think from pruning, trunk looks like it would become a shrub. That seems to be its mature size. Stays a very nice dark green thru the summer here in Phoenix. The pictures where taken 9/1 and there were only a couple of open flowers. Buds suggested more flowers but I haven't seen them pop yet. I think I have seen this with a lot of flowers in the past.

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Flower is closer to the camera so looks bigger than it should compared to my hand. Flower is about the size of a US quarter.

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Thanks.

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Comments (6)

joncongaroo
9 years ago
Looks like Guaiacum coulteri to me.
waterbug_guy
Original Author
9 years ago
That looks right to me. Thanks much.
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grant_in_arizona
9 years ago
Yup, JonC is right as usual. Definitely Guaiacum. The desert botanical garden has some nice specimens, and some of the local nurseries carry them now and then. Gotta love those true blue flowers! I wish I had the space for one, or three, LOL.

Here is a link that might be useful: Guayacan (Guaiacum coulteri) on Desert Tropicals website
waterbug_guy
Original Author
9 years ago
What's the chance this could also be Guaiacum angustifolium? I can't tell the two apart from descriptions I'm reading. Thanks.
joncongaroo
9 years ago
The descriptions in the Mary Irish book "Trees and Shrubs for the Southwest" are also similar. She says the G. angustifolia leaves are less than 1/2 inch long, also G. angustifolia is more frost tolerant but less tolerant of full sun in the low desert. The photo of G. coulteri in the book looks more like your picture to me.
waterbug_guy
Original Author
9 years ago
I also keep running into pictures that look like G. coulteri, but many pictures seem to vary a lot too. I guess it doesn't really matter much, G. coulteri is close enough. I guess there's a G. coulteri at Glendale xeriscape demonstration garden so I'll have to take some leaves from the question plant and compare side by side. Thanks much.

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