Guide to Trees, Shrubs and Herbaceous Plants in Arizona's Sycamore Canyons

The trees, shrubs, perennial herbs and annuals described in this guide are those that occur in riparian woodlands within and adjacent to more-or-less permanent streams and watered canyons in Arizona. Many of the trees are Arizona Sycamore, Platanus wrightii. Depending on elevation and soil conditions a wide variety of other trees and woody shrubs are prevalent. In Arizona these sycamore-dominated canyons generally range in elevation from 1000 m to 2000 m. Interspersed between the trees are drier ledges and terraces that support vegetation typical of surrounding semi-arid habitats. These drier spots within the galleries are often shaded either by the trees or by high canyon walls and so as a result often support a rich variety of mesic flora. If a plant species is covered in detail in another guide on Arizona Naturalists an icon will so indicate. The user should use the 'back button' on the browser to return to this guide page.

Arizona Sycamore

Tree of grand proportions with white peeling bark and large palmately lobed leaves. Pendulous sphaerical fruit. More ...

Arizona Walnut

Medium to large-sized tree with large, alternate, compound leaves. Bark is dark and fissured. Fruit a thick-shelled, nut. More ...

Arizona Alder

Medium to large-sized tree with mostly smooth bark and simple, serrated-edge leaves. Fruit in short, dense catkins. More ...

Box Elder

Medium to large-sized tree. Leaves are compound with 3 to 7 segments. Seeds with papery wings like other maples. More ...

Velvet Ash

Medium to large tree with compound, opposite leaves. Dark, fissured bark. Seeds with papery wing. More ...

Net-leaf Hackberry

Alternate elyptical leaves are prominently veined and tough. Med. to large tree with distinct warty bark. Small orange berries. More ...

Fremont Cottonwood

Large, deciduous tree in sycamore canyons mostly at the lower elevations. More ...

Gambel's Oak

Medium to large tree. Light green, deciduos leaves with several prominent, rounded lobes. Acorns. Bark fissured and scaly. More ...

Emory Oak

Medium to large tree. Dark, evergreen leaves usu. have several sharp-pointed serrations. Acorns mature one year. More ...

Hop Tree

Medium-sized tree or shrub with dark green, trifoliate, aromatic leaves. Small, cream flowers give rise to paper-winged seeds. More ...

Ashy Silktassel

Intricately branched, large shrub with broadly elyptical, smooth-margined, opposite leaves. Leaves have an ashy cast due to minute hairs. More ...

Utah Juniper

Medium-sized tree with small, scale-like leaves. Seeds are embedded in berry-like aril. Bark is gray and fibrous. More ...

California Buckthorn

Medium to large shrub with dark green, elyptic leaves. Fruit a small dark berry. Frequent in the understory along wooded canyons. More ...

Holy-leaf Buckthorn

Medium-sized shrub with evergreen, holly-like leaves and bright red berries in season. Small cream flowers. More ...

Scrub Live Oak

Medium-sized shrub or small tree. Sharp spines at margins of oval leaves. Acorns often present. Evergreen. More ...

Mistletoe on Oaks

Woody parasite growing directly out of twigs and branches of mostly Quercus spp. Oaks). Minute green flowers in clusters. More ...

Birch-leaf Mountain Mahogany

Medium to large shrub on rocky sites. Tough leaves wedge-shaped. Whitish-cream flowers. More ...

Smooth Sumac

Thicket-forming shrub with long, compound leaves. Yellowish flowers in dense panicle later with red berries. More ...

Skunk Bush

Medium-sized shrub with three-parted leaves and strongly aromatic odor. Yellowish flowers followed by fuzzy red berries. More ...

Poison Ivy

Low shrubby plant or weakly climbing vine usually in partial shade. Three-parted, shiny, dark-green leaves. Small spikes of white flowers. More ...

New Mexico Locust

Small trees often forming thickets with sharp thorns. Leaves pinnately compound. Clusters of showy pink pea-flowers. More ...

Wood's Rose

Medium-sized shrub with pink rose flowers with five petals. Numerous stamens and pistils. Leaves three or five parted and with serrate margins. More ...

Choke Cherry

Simple, alternate leaves with serrated margin. White flowers in spikes. Small tree or shrubby thicket. More ...

Apple

Medium sized deciduous tree with dark scaly bark and broadly elyptic, serrated leaves. Large 5-petaled, white flowers. More ...

Southern Catalpa

In Arizona this non-native tree is usu. small. Large heart-shaped leaves, white-purple trumpet flowers and long seed pods. More ...

Canyon Grape

Woody vine climbing by tendrils. Broadly orbicular leaves with coursly toothed leaves. Small grapes in cluster. More ...

False Indigo

Medium-sized shrub with a number of stems arising from crown and spreading into a small thicket. Very small dark purple flowers on a spike. Foliage smells unpleasant; leaves pinnately compound. More ...

Indian Hemp

Mostly herbaceous shrub with long, flexible stems that ooze milky sap when broken. Clusters of pink or white flowers. unpleasant; leaves pinnately compound. More ...

Velvet Mesquite

Medium to large tree, sometimes a shrub, with twice-pinnately compound, deciduous leaves. Flowers minute in dense, elongate spikes. Bean pods. More ...

Spider Milkweed

Herbaceous perennial bearing clusters of green-purple flowers and leaves that exude milky sap from breaks. More ...

Ceanothus

Stiff-branched shrub of chaparral. Small, leathery leaves. Numerous white flowers in dense clusters. More ...

Tree Tobacco

Small tree with one or a few main stems. Large smooth leaves. Tubular yellow flowers. More ...

Yellow Columbine

Herbaceous perennial with large, bright yellow flowers. Long spurs from base of each petal. Leaves compound. More ...

New Mexico Groundsel

Bright yellow daisies on perennial with oblong, toothed, tomentose leaves. Seeds with capillary bristles. More ...

Silver Wormwood

Related to sage brush of Great Basin. Stems and leaves silvery and mostly herbaceous except about woody crown. Small, rayless flower heads with yellow disc. More ...

Yerba Santa

Medium shrub on dry, rocky sites in and near sycamore woods. Leaves linear, shiny resinous. Inflorescence scorpioid. More ...

Groundcherry

Low growing herbaceous plant from a perennial with yellow flowers usu. obscured by leaves. Fruit in a papery sac. More ...

Common Mullein

Large, elyptical, mostly basal leaves are covered with thick, silky pubescence. Yellow flowers on tall spikes. More ...

Yellow Sweet Clover

Tall herbaceous perennial with trifoliate leaves and spikes of small yellow pea-flowers. Grows in moist soil adjacent to riparian streams. More ...

Seep Monkey Flower

Herbaceous annual or perennial growing in moist to wet sand. Bright yellow, monkey-faced flowers. Nearly orbicular leaves with rounded lobes. More ...

Buffalo Gourd

Robust vine with large triangular leaves runs along ground. Leaves and fruit with strong odor. More ...

London Rocket

Weedy mustard with small, four-petaled flowers followed by long slender pods. More ...

Watercress

Semi-aquatic plant rooted in wet or submerged soil along gently flowing streams. Small white flowers and small turgid pods. More ...

Water Speedwell

Herbaceous plant of wet sandy soil along streams. Light blue, symetrical flowers on open, branching spikes. Seed in dry capsules. More ...

Spearmint

Mid-height, herbaceous perennial with highly aromatic foliage. Leaves opposite, serrate. Small white flowers clustered in spikes at branch tips. More ...

California Chicory

Herbaceous annual with white, strap-shaped florets and seeds with a plumose top. Milky sap from broken stems. More ...

Longleaf Phlox

Mostly herbaceous perennial with showy pink or white, tubular flowers. Leaves opposite and long-linear. More ...

Tufted Evening Primrose

Over-sized white flowers that open at night, fade pink and shrivel by noon. Herbaceous perennial on sandy margins of sycamore creeks. More ...

Fleabane

Yellow-centered white daisies smaller than a nickle in diameter. Several similar and common species. More ...

Small Seaside Germander

Herbaceous annual with small bluish flowers, squarish stems, fruit four-nutlets. Leaves with petiole winged. More ...

Desert Beard-tongue

Robust perennial herb with large glossy leaves and spikes of bright pink blooms in spring. More ...

New Mexico Thistle

Biennial grows a roseatte of elongate spiney leaves then shoots up a tall flowering stalk with lavender-pink flower heads. Butterfly favorite. More ...

Horehound

Herbaceous perennial possibly a meter tall forming clumps of many stems. Gray-green leaves opposite and intricately textured. Clustered white-pink flowers. More ...

Clustered Dock

Perennial herb regrowing in early spring from underground root. Elyptic leaves and dense spikes of small greenish-red flowers. More ...

Iris-leaf Rush

Herbaceous plant with grass or iris-like leaves. Small reddish-green flowers in panicles. More ...

Weeping Brome

Medium-size grass with graceful, weeping panicles of spikelets. More ...

Red Brome Grass

Moderately tall grass of springtime with long reddish awns on the spikelets. When dried these awns and barbed seeds catch into clothing. More ...

Fountain Grass

Tall bunch grass with long feathery plume-inflorescences. Invasive weed often within riparian corridors. More ...

Arizona Bluecurls

A delicate-flowered, small perennial. Leaves elyptic and relatively small. Blooming after start of monsoon. More ...