A Snapshot and The Scoop: A Desert Shrub

Swollen with water from winter storms, the ocotillo sprouts its waxy little leaves all over the many arms of its branches and attracts insects to its engorged, cracked, woody stems. Resembling a bunch of thorny dead sticks reaching toward the baking desert sun for most of the year, the ocotillo bursts into leaf and flower during the rainy season in the Sonoran Desert. Technically considered a shrub, the ocotillo can easily be mistaken for a cactus when it doesn't have its leaves or flowers thanks to the sharp spines that cover every inch of its multiple arms. It's during the wettest seasons of the year that its true colors shine, and what an incredible sight it is!