Desert trumpet is native to portions of western North America. I grew up in the northeast
and have seen very little of the southwestern desert. When I first glimpsed this plant from the
car window in Nevada (photo 19), I was deeply impressed. "Susie! Stop the car!" I walked back a quarter mile to find my
“exotic” plant, and returned, very pleased with myself. Okay, so it isn’t really exotic, but it looked to me
like something from another planet.
This table compares desert trumpet to a close relative, kidney-leaf buckwheat.
Yellow, about 1/4" across, with greenish or reddish midribs; inconspicuous.
Very small, yellow, turning reddish later.
Stem
Some stems have inflated regions.
Stems are not inflated.
Range/ Zones
Habitats
Creosote Bush Scrub, Joshua Tree Woodland, Sagebrush Scrub, Pinyon-Juniper Woodland, between -50 and 6500'
Creosote Bush Scrub, Joshua Tree Woodland, less than 5000'
Type
Wild
Wild
Occurrence
Common
Common
Plants: Up to 2′ (60 cm) in height. It’s
distinguishing characteristic is the inflated stems, which I assumed were for storage of water.
Pro botanists assumed these expanded regions were galls. Some insects secrete hormones that
cause a plant to grow abnormally, producing galls: a house on demand for raising baby bugs.
But this isn’t the case either. If the Wikipedia article is right, the
expanded areas house
carbon dioxide gas, which plays an as-yet unknown role in the plant’s life cycle.
The stem inflation is less likely to occur later in the season. Area natives sometimes made makeshift
pipes from the hollow stems, hence the common name indian pipeweed.
Leaves: Desert trumpet is drought deciduous:
it frequently drops its leaves entirely when it is dry, but the green stems are also
capable of photosynthesis, sustaining the plant.
Flowers: Tiny yellow or pink flowers, with greenish or reddish midribs, are 1/16-⅛″ (2-3 mm) in size.
Fruits: Achenes are light brown to brown, and
roughly lens-shaped.