Ocotillos produce clusters of bright red flowers at their stem tips, which explain the plant’s name. Ocotillo means “little torch” in Spanish. Plants bloom once in the spring from March through June depending on latitude then sporadically in response to rainfall during the summer. Hummingbirds pollinate the flowers.

These plants are quite strange looking with these flowers growing on the tips of what looks like sticks.

It is fascinating to learn about all the desert plants. I keep noticing more and more as we venture out, and it’s nice to be able to refer to our Baja California Plant Field Guide.

The ocotillo is a shrub that has no main trunk and it can grow to 20 feet. I don’t usually think of shrubs as being so tall.

Each flower usually has more than 10 stamens which probably makes the hummingbirds happy. At least satisfied.

I got this hummingbird image from Google images. https://www.britannica.com/plant/ocotillo

The flowers can be eaten raw or you can do like the indigenous people did and make a tea by soaking both the flowers and the seeds in water.

During a drought burros will break the spines of the branches with their hooves to get to the edible inner bark.

You can even grow a living fence if you plant branch cuttings that will take root once you stick them into the ground. The gray spines will deter visitors I would think.