Hardiness zones
Sunset 10-13
USDA 8-10
Landscape Use: Xeriscape, background, screen, informal hedge, highway plantings, floral accent, landscape standard as a small street side tree
Form & Character: Evergreen shrub, informally formal, slightly stiff and brittle
Growth Habit: Slow to moderate to 10 to 25', final height depends in watering
Foliage/texture: Lanceolate and leathery, medium to dark dull green leaves with serrate margins and prominent central mid-vein, 4" in length and 1/2" in width, petioles reddish, stems gray, medium texture
Flowers & fruits: Small white flowers in umbels followed by ugly brown small brown fruit, persistent
Seasonal color: White flowers over a relatively short period of time, late April to May
Temperature: Tolerant of all but very hottest weather, foliage begins to yellow. You and I know those days as when the thermometer leaps above 110oF.
Light: Partial to full sun, only moderately tolerates reflective heat in low desert.
Soil: Well drained rocky soil is best.
Watering: Infrequent deep supplement irrigations during summer are needed.
Pruning: Prune lightly only to shape, do not shear.
Propagation: Seed, sometimes cutting
Disease and pests: Texas root rot
Additional comments: Valued as a nonpoisonous replacement for oleander, although it's early summer flowering is not as spectacular and occurs over only a couple of weeks. Young Arizona rosewood plants are slow to establish in the the landscape and are prone to heat stress. In general, Arizona rosewood performs better in highly exposed areas in Tucson than Phoenix because the former is at higher elevation and is slightly cooler overall, a milder climate. Arizona rosewood is also highly sensitive (foliar chlorosis) to ground applied pre-emergent herbicides like PrincepTM.
Genus named after Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (1765-1827), French chemist and botanist. Although the plant is found in isolated pockets in Baja California, the species name, californica, "from California", is misleading to some, since this plant does not naturally occur in the state of California. However, botanists for the last 150 years have typically treated Alta California (the state of California) and Baja California as one unit. Other native Vauquelinia species include Vauquelinia angustifolia and Vauquelinia corymbosa ssp. angustifolia.
