''Calliandra eriophylla'', commonly known as fairy duster, is a low spreading

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

which is native to deserts and arid grasslands in

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New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

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, and

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. The flowers, which appear between late winter and late spring, have dense clusters of pale to deep pink stamens and are about wide. The shrub is usually between high and has bipinnate leaves. Alternative common names for this species include mock mesquite and mesquitella.

Description

The ''

Calliandra ''Calliandra'' is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, in the mimosoid clade of the subfamily Caesalpinioideae. It contains about 140 species that are native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. Description ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

has over 250 species, with only three being native to the southwest. Found in regions such as Northern Mexico Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts along with Southern California and Southwestern New Mexico. This spectacular plant gets its name as a reference to its "showy appearance". The Calliandra plants thrive in the heat and once established can endure extreme droughts. They can survive being watered as little as once to twice a week.

Name origin

The genus name, ''Calliandra'', means "beautiful-stamens". The species name, eriophylla is Greek for "wooly leaf". Some of its common names are fairy duster, false mesquite, stickpea, hairy-leaved ''Calliandra'', pink mimosa, pink-flowered acacia, mesquitilla, plumita, gavia, huajillo, cabeza angel, cabelleto de angel, cabeze de angel, and cosahui.Posey Amala, ''Native Plants of Arizona''

Identification

Typically, the ''Calliandra'' is a low growing plant,

prostrate Prostrate may refer to:- *Prostration, a position of submission in religion etc. *Prone position, a face-down orientation of the body *Prostrate shrub A prostrate shrub is a woody plant, most of the branches of which lie upon or just above the ...

toward upper elevation, and at lower elevation grows erect and bushy. The ''Calliandra'' grows as a loosely branched shrub that once matured, can reach heights of four to five feet in height and twice as wide in width. Pruning for this particular plant is not necessary; however, if one chooses to prune it can result in making the plant much denser. Found in this plant are

spherical A sphere (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ) is a surface (mathematics), surface analogous to the circle, a curve. In solid geometry, a sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...

flowers found in cream, pink, or white one and one quarter to two inches in diameter containing several clusters of flowers with long slender

stamens The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...

. The stamens in the plant are usually straight but occasionally found curled.

Habitat- growth habitat

''Calliandra eriophylla'' usually grows in dry areas. The fairy duster can survive with little

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

, and with varied amounts of exposure to the sun. However, the

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

blooms more when it is exposed to the sun than when it has little exposure to the sun. The fairy duster depends on

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

that is dry, contains gravel, and its naturally

alkaline In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The ...

. It is usually found on open hillsides and desert washes and slopes that fall below . These plants can grow to be up to wide and 1 to 3 feet tall. During the spring and summer the plant begins to bloom pale to vibrant pink flowers.

Distribution

''Calliandra eriophylla'' is distributed across a wide range of arid and dry areas. It is most commonly located in the Southwestern

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and Northern

. This includes places like southern

, and

. These plants are native to the Arizona region and as such can survive in desert areas with minimal water needs. This allows it to thrive in areas like the Mohave Desert and

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...

and other areas with weather similar to that of Southern Arizona. The preferred elevation for growth of fairy duster is between .

Seeding and pollination

The ''Calliandra eriophylla'' is fairly common in the deserts of the southwestern United States. Therefore, it has a number of different pollinators. Some of the primary pollinators are

bees Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

flies Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwin ...

butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

, and

hummingbirds Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

. The fairy duster is able to attract these pollinators because it produces a considerable amount of

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

of about 2.17 mg of sugar per flower. The pollination allows the seed pods to begin to grow. Eventually when they reach maturity the pods, which are dehiscent, will break open and launch the seeds in an attempt to propagate the plant. One of the main threats to the seeds is that many animals eat the seeds before they can develop including small birds like

quails Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New W ...

which may even pry open unpopped pods.

Animals

The fairy duster flowers are a pale pink color and are an attraction to animals that live in the desert. This plant becomes a source of food for the

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

that roam in the desert or hillsides. The plant also attracts butterflies, bees and hummingbirds for nectar when the flowers are blooming.

References

Other sources

*Spellenberg, R. (1979) ''Field Guide to North American Wildflowers - Western Region'', National Audubon Society.
''Calliandra eriophylla''
The

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

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Cooperative Extension *

External links

Jepson Interchange: ''Calliandra eriophylla''USDA PLANTS Profile: ''Calliandra eriophylla''
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2709989 eriophylla Flora of Northwestern Mexico Flora of Northeastern Mexico Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of Arizona Flora of California Flora of New Mexico Flora of Texas Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Flora of the Chihuahuan Desert Flora of the California desert regions Natural history of the Colorado Desert Taxa named by George Bentham Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant plants Flora without expected TNC conservation status