Joshua trees are some of the strangest and most wonderful plants you will ever see! They have twisty, bumpy branches that reach up and out in every direction, and each branch ends in a clump of pointy, spiky leaves that look like shaggy green hair. Joshua trees only grow wild in the Mojave Desert in the southwestern United States, and there is even a famous national park named after them called Joshua Tree National Park! These amazing plants got their name from settlers who thought the branches looked like the arms of a person named Joshua reaching up to the sky.
Even though they are called “trees,” Joshua trees are not really trees at all. They are actually a type of yucca plant! Just like their yucca cousins, they depend on a special moth, called the yucca moth, to help them make seeds. Joshua trees can grow to be about 40 feet tall, which is as high as a four-story building, and some of them are over 300 years old. Many desert animals use Joshua trees as their home. Woodpeckers and owls nest in the trunks, lizards climb in the branches, and pack rats build their homes at the base. The Joshua tree is like a neighborhood apartment building for the desert!
