Joshua Tree - Plants

Today Joshua Tree National Park is a really dry area, with only the occasional thunderstorm / flash flood. 12,000 years ago it was very different.


Back then we were emerging from the ice age, and the jetstream generally ran much further south than it does now.




The whole area was much wetter with running water and lakes, much like the Pacific north west today.

Gradually the jetstream moved northwards and the area dried up. The rivers stopped running, and the lakes dried up.





(Salton Sea was dry for thousands of years until due to man's environmental meddling it partially filled with water).





The flash floods have over the years stripped the land of its soil, and left the dusty land we see today.

The 2 sides of Joshua Tree have different characteristics, the lower hotter east and the higher and slightly cooler west. The Joshua Trees themselves are mostly in the west.

In the east there are 2 other plants you will see a lot of, the cholla cactus and the ocotilla.









There are a lot of both of these by the side of Pinto Basin Road, in the Cholla Garden and the Octotilla Patch.

Be very careful with the Chollas, their spines can be really nasty!