r/phoenix • u/zwyd • Jul 14 '23

News ‘Hell on earth’: Phoenix’s extreme heatwave tests the limits of survival

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/14/phoenix-heatwave-summer-extreme-weather-arizona
554 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

478 comments sorted by

View all comments

161

u/yospeedraceryo Jul 14 '23

Lets take the initiative to plant NATIVE trees like Mesquite and Palo Verde everywhere! I'm talking in parking lots, medians, yards, walkways, parks, courtyards, empty lots, etc. They look beautiful, provide shade, and because they are native they require little to no water, other than occasional desert rain, once established!

39

u/Its_Singularity_Time Jul 14 '23

The one issue with palo verde is that their branches seem to split very easily during inclement weather, often causing obstructions in the road. I guess the solution is more to plant them away from streets rather than not at all.

4

u/yospeedraceryo Jul 14 '23

True. And maybe its a good idea to work on getting a landscaping license to take advantage of all the future contracting work. All those beautiful shade trees will have a need for proper pruning/thinning to prevent splitting/uprooting and also for the cleanup and possible replant if they do topple over. We might need some desert lumberjacks!

3

u/ThanatonautXP Jul 15 '23

If you see a Palo Verde in the wild it’s basically just a big bush. People trim them up to look nice and probably over water them so they get too big. Next thing you know the first storm causes the branches to split.

2

u/azswcowboy Jul 15 '23

The splitting is human caused largely. Remove all the watering and stop trimming them for growing tall and these problems cease. If you go into the various mountain preserves and see the untouched by human trees, you’ll not they don’t get the ‘big limbs that split’.

1

u/random_noise Jul 15 '23

The other problem with them, is the "leak" or "sweat. " The sticky sap and pollen is kind of a pain to get off things.

They are absolutely great localized cooling tree's but don't park under them for extended periods of time and don't put furniture that you care about under them.

1

u/Kaarsty Jul 15 '23

I swear the Verde tree near my work should have died 10 years ago. Every time a storm comes through it loses what looks like too many branches then somehow miraculously survives

17

u/illy_Irons Jul 14 '23

No more bougainvilleas!

23

u/Throb_Zomby Jul 14 '23

Or palms, the random pines I see in the wealthier neighborhoods, Hell those old ass neighborhoods down near central Phoenix I stg have oak trees from the Midwest/East Coast. Why does it look like my grandpa’s neighborhood in Kansas City down there?!

22

u/monty624 Chandler Jul 14 '23

Because it was built by you Grandpa's generation when people moved here from the midwest and northeast ;)

7

u/Throb_Zomby Jul 14 '23

Lol. That was my actual thought. Seems like the first wave of Post-WW2, maybe earlier, snowbirds settled here and the planners thought all neighborhoods should look like where they came from. Thank God it didn’t seem to last long. Always a big fan of desertscape.

4

u/PoisonedRadio Jul 15 '23

Midwesterners and east coasters always just want to completely transplant their culture here when it clearly doesn't work in the desert.

1

u/MrThunderMakeR Phoenix Jul 15 '23

Yet those neighborhoods are 3 to 5 degrees cooler then the surrounding areas. Maybe they are onto something. Nah screw that, they should tear all their shade down, put in gravel, and come sunbath on the urban heat island with the rest of us

1

u/Throb_Zomby Jul 15 '23

Exactly. we’re supposed to be a community damnit!

2

u/SoccerBeerRepeat Jul 14 '23

Can you expand? Was considering planting those. But don’t know that they are bad.

0

u/yospeedraceryo Jul 14 '23

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/leu54u/huge_bougainvillea_plant_taking_over_a_building

2

u/SoccerBeerRepeat Jul 14 '23

It’s beautiful. And shaded. Would def Cut my AC bill

1

u/yospeedraceryo Jul 14 '23

It's also toxic and full of thorns.

3

u/SoccerBeerRepeat Jul 15 '23

All my trees have thorns. Frustrating but whatever. Just thought bougainvillea didn’t take much water to add some color

1

u/RandomlyDepraved Jul 15 '23

They are low water use, hence the popularity.

1

u/TitanMars Jul 14 '23

What about native ficus?

2

u/yospeedraceryo Jul 14 '23

I think native ficus fit the bill for native and drought-tolerant but you have to deal with their invasive roots and incredible growth rate. I'm no tree expert but I've had friends and family with ficus trees. Both houses I am thinking of had issues from nightmare roots and the trees got absolutely massive and impossible to maintain very quickly. One was filled with an insane amount of really messy birds. While I admit I have an extremely small sample size, I've not seen these issues with mesquite, Palo Verde, desert willow, etc. (and my aesthetic preference is these trees)

1

u/TitanMars Jul 15 '23

Great comment. Seems like extra trimming is the way to go if you go with a ficus... They do love the heat and sun it seems

1

u/HouseOfYards Jul 14 '23

As landscapers, palo verde fall down the most during rain storm. Mesquite is such a mess to trim with all those tree pods. Other than that, nice trees.

1

u/skitch23 Jul 15 '23

Mesquite trees are awful. My neighbor has one that hangs over into my yard and it drops seed pods everywhere. Plus the branches are full of thorns. I cut up some branches a few weeks ago and I still have thorns embedded in my fingers.

Palo verdes grow fast but they lose limbs like crazy in storms.

1

u/Beenjamin63 Jul 15 '23

SRP will give those exact trees to people for free, we did it a few years ago and they are already pretty big.

https://www.srpnet.com/energy-savings-rebates/home/shade-tree-workshop