Desert Ironwood Fact Sheet

The wood is one of the heaviest in the world.

Desert ironwood fact sheet.

This arizona native is known around the world for its dense and heavy wood that is highly valued as quality firewood and as an exceptional woodworking material. It belongs to the fabaceae or pea family. The ironwood tree only grows in the southwest s sonoran desert. Many species of sonoran wildlife depend on it for survival.

The desert ironwood tree is the only member of the olneya genus. I am from yuma arizona and this stuff is everywhere around here. Arizona ironwood palo de hierro palo de fierro are some of names that the desert ironwood is known as. Ironwood forest national monument protects a prime example of the sonoran desert with 128 917 acres of mountains and hills scattered amongst broad species rich valleys.

Only pieces of wood that have fallen off of the remaining tree can be picked up and taken and you may not drag large pieces of wood through the desert or uproot a tree. Yes desert ironwood can be found in the south western part of arizona. The sonoran desert is located in southwestern arizona southern california and the northwestern part of mexico. Here in the landscapes of the desert southwest ironwood serves as an excellent evergreen screen against unsightly views and provides cooling shade as it grows.

The desert ironwood is a plant found in the sonoran desert. It ranks among the most ecologically and economically important plant species in the region. The desert ironwood only grows in the washes and valleys of the sonoran desert below 2 500 foot elevation. The ironwood is an essential.

Unlike other types of wood ironwood does not float because of its high density. The leaves of the ironwood tree as well as its flowers mirror those of a sweet pea. Arizona ironwood palo de hierro palo de fierro genus. The desert ironwood tree grows 20 to 50 feet tall making it the tallest tree in the sonoran desert.

It is however protected. Ferrea is a hot dry digestive and good for fever foul breath sweats scabies skin eruptions itching small tumors headache blood and heart problems sore throat cough hiccough vomiting excessive thirst dysentery and bleeding piles. Its name comes from the heavy dense heart wood the tree produces. The roskruge and waterman mountains the silverbell west silverbell and on the fringe the sawtooth mountains.

It is one of the biggest and oldest plants growing to heights of 45 feet and persisting in the desert heat for as long as 1 200 years. The tree known in the u s mexico borderlands as desert ironwood or palo fierro olneya tesota is one of many woody legumes found in washes and hillside drainages in the sonoran desert.