Spring in the Rain Garden

Lindy Brigham - Rancho Morado

As you can see, the winter rains were good for many plants throughout Tucson.

​The garden came into being during the monsoon rains of 2020.  The profusion of plants woke us up to the possibility of creating a 'rain garden' and watching it grow over the years rather than mowing it when it became 'too weedy'. The idea of a rain garden is to let nature take over with the water that is available. You will find more about the garden and information on 'rain gardens' in general on the website. It is a work in progress and you will see that weeding is still necessary. 

For this post, I am going to just highlight a few of the plants that are currently flowering in the Rain Garden.  

Below is a group of three plants growing together that are representative of the most abundant of the current blooms.

The plant with the palmate leaves at the top of the picture is a type of mallow called 'cheese weed' (Malva parviflora).  It is native to Europe, but seems to love Tucson.  
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Below the cheese weed is a plant with small yellow flowers called 'cretan weed'  (Hedypnois rhagadioloides) which is native to the mediterranean region.

The third plant, also with yellow flowers to the right of the cretan weed is 'sour clover or common melilot' (Melilotus indicus), also native to the mediterranean area.  (You see a pattern here?)

Here are some closeups of these plants

Cheese weed is related to the native globe mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua flower at right) you will also see growing in the garden.  The blooms of the native plant are much more showy.

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You can currently see cretan weed covering the rain garden floor on the north end of the garden. 

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The sour clover is also abundant this year. Clovers and Alfalfas are grown as livestock feed for their nutritional value.  They are legumes, plants that collaborate with bacteria in their roots to fix nitrogen.  They enrich the soil so less fertilizer is necessary when growing crops.  In times before modern agriculture they were used in crop 'rotations' to fertilize the soil between growing other crops. 

They are particularly attractive to the many bees in the area.

Many plants in the desert are legumes. A related plant native to Arizona is 'soft prairie clover' (Dalea mollissima)

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While these plants are not native, and they tend to outcompete the native plants, they are not a serious threat and can be managed with selective weeding. There are plants that are invasive and a threat to humans and other animals and the next blog will highlight those.

 All photographs were taken by Lindy.  All the plant references are from the Southwest Desert Flora website