The landscapers have to prune them back by the truckload ever other week, and yet it seems like the only sustenance they live on is sunshine. They grow in desert soil with minimal water. Where do they get the material from that they use to grow limbs and leaves and flowers?
They grow so fast and so profusely that you’d think the soil that they grow out of would start to sink from loss of substance, the soil turning into tree. Why doesn’t the volume of soil consumed equal the volume of tree produced?
November 19th, 2009
Palo verde trees grow like weeds, but from what??
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These trees get their nutrients just like any other tree, from the soil. They are just adapted to the dry conditions that would kill other types of tree. If you planted palo verde trees in a swamp they would no doubt die quickly. Even desert soil has bacteria, and other microorganisms in it. Generally there is a synergy between these microorganisms and the plants growing in any particular area.
Much of it is photosynthesis. Soil nutrients and their replenishment probably (I’m no soil scientist or horticulture guru, but…) come from the decaying matter of dead plant matter such as fallen palo verdes.
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