trees - Pollinator Web

Pollinator Garden Plants: Catclaw Acacia

Senegalia greggii (formerly Acacia greggii) is native to the southwestern united states and northern Mexico at elevations below 4500′. It’s a large thorny shrub or small tree growing to 20′ tall. Flowers are fragrant. Full to part sun, low water and hardy to 0 degrees F.

Flowering Season: J F M A M J J A S O N D

Sonoran Desert Native, great nectar plant, attracts native birds and super larval host plant:

Mexican Yellow (Eurema mexicana)
Mimosa Yellow (Eurema nise)
Reakirt’s Blue (Echinargus isola)
Marine Blue (Leptotes marina)
Hubbard’s Small Silkmoth (Sphingicampa hubbardi)
Tricolor Buckmoth (Hemileuca tricolor),
Black Witch Moth (Ascalapha odorata),
Owlet Moths (family Noctuidae)
Mesquite Stinger Flannel Moth (Norape tenera),
Naval Orange Worm Moth (Amyelois transitella)
Merry Melipotis Moth (Melipotis jucunda)

Common names include catclaw acacia, catclaw mesquite, Gregg’s catclaw, paradise flower, wait-a-minute bush, and wait-a-bit tree; these names mostly come from the fact that the tree has numerous hooked prickles with the shape and size of a cat‘s claw which tend to hook onto passers-by; the hooked person must stop (“wait a minute”) to remove the prickles carefully to avoid injury or shredded clothing.
Wikipedia

Found on flats, washes, and slopes below 5,000 ft. in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, and south into Northern Mexico
Spadefoot Nursery

Other Resources:

Maricopa Pollinator Pathway Plant List

PollinatorWeb Recommended Plants

Mountain States Wholesale Nursery

Smart Plant Tags

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Glamorous Moths #7 – Pine Carpenterworm

Givira lotta, the Pine Carpenterworm moth. I have a soft spot for large, fuzzy moths. This one is a member of the Carpenter and Leopard moths. From Wikipedia:

The Cossidae, the cossid millers or carpenter millers, make up a family of mostly large miller moths. This family contains over 110 genera with almost 700 known species, and many more species await description. Carpenter millers are nocturnal Lepidoptera found worldwide, except the Southeast Asian subfamily Ratardinae, which is mostly active during the day.

Pinned adult moth uploaded to iNaturalist.org by Ronald Parry

This moth is found in California Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado and most likely in pine forest areas of northern Mexico.

Adult pine carpenterworm moth uploaded to iNaturalist.org by C Mallory

Larvae feed on outer bark of ponderosa pine. I couldn’t find a caterpillar picture in this genus on iNaturalist. Here’s an example of another species in Family Cossidae.

Goat Moth caterpillar uploaded by Sergey Mayorov to iNaturalist.org

Community Forests Prepare for Climate Change – From the EOS Blog

Community Forests Prepare for Climate Change

“Trees benefit residents in communities around the world by mitigating pollution and other environmental impacts of contemporary society and by broadly improving livability in cities and towns. However, many locales are feeling the heat as urban, or community, forests—defined by the U.S. Forest Service as “the aggregate of all public and private vegetation and green space within a community that provide a myriad of environmental, health and economic benefits”—struggle against a multitude of stressors stemming from climate change.”

To learn more about New Mexico efforts, visit https://treenm.org/ and The Nature Conservancy