Winter Morning Walk: Wild Palo Verde

We're finally getting a little frost here, but the days are sunny and well above freezing.  So this morning I took a ramble (with camera) in the empty lot next door.  One of my favorite bits of desert flora there is a small, wild Palo Verde tree that grows right up against our perimeter wall.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the Blue Palo Verde (Parkinsonia floridum).  In a few months there should be flowers, but for now there are only the tiny leaves and the grey-green bark.  Green bark colour is typical of the Parkinsonias, which often drop their leaves during the summer heat and drought, while the bark carries on the task of photosynthesis.  In some species, the bark colour is brighter or yellower, but this tree has skin of a soft grey-green tinted with blue.  Even now the leaves are fairly sparse, and some are a bit yellow.  I don't know whether this is from the cold snap or not, but in any case it gives a brilliant effect as the sun shines through them.