PlantFiles: Blue Palo Verde
Parkinsonia florida

Mostly leafless, once in a while some temporary leaves in spring.
Springtime brings many bright little yellow flowers.
Very Heat tolerant.

A comparison between the flowers of five Palo Trees
--The Mexican Palo Verde (Parkinsonia aculeata), the upper petal starts out with red dots that eventually grow bigger and turn the entire top petal to red.
--The Palo Brea (Parkinsonia praecox), the upper petal has smaller & fewer red dots than the Mexican Palo Verde (P. aculeata) that don't grow bigger.
--The Blue Palo Verde (Parkinsonia florida), the upper petal is always a solid yellow just like the other four petals.
--The Little Leaf Palo Verde (parkinsonia microphylla), the upper petal is solid, all white, and the remaining petals are yellow.
--The Palo Brasil (Haematoxylum brasiletto), has flowers similar to Parkinsonia sp., and the top yellow petal has red dendritic streaks.

Palo Verde, or Paloverde, is native to our Southwest and comprises some of the chaparral in the mountains. When it blooms the most wonderful scent fills the air for miles around.
It has small leaves for only part of the year and tolerates very little water during the summer.
It grows readily from seed but is very susceptible to tent caterpillars. Alas, that's how I ultimately lost all of mine.