Strong Wind Through a Desert Willow

The deep winds of the desert pry themselves through the leaves of the Desert Willow. They push apart the flowers and scatter their petals to the winds like a joyous dance caught in midflight. If you close your eyes, you could almost trace their ascent through sound alone, as the wind picks up speed and slows down again like a heartbeat full of excitement. Chilopsis is a monotypic genus of flowering plants containing the single species Chilopsis linearis. It is a shrub or tree native to the southwestern United States and Mexico. The common name is desert willow or desert-willow[4] because of its willow-like leaves, but it is a member of thebignonia family, Bignoniaceae. It is commonly seen in washes and along riverbanks at elevations below 1800m in its range. Ranging from 1.5 to as much as 8 meters in height, it can take the form of a shrub or small tree. The linear, curved, deciduous leaves are 10 to 26 cm long and just a few millimeters wide.