Ocotillo

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əʊkəˈtɪləʊ/

Definitions

1. A thorny desert shrub or small tree native to southwestern North America, characterized by long slender branches with clusters of red tubular flowers at the tips and leaves that appear only after rainfall
2. A spiny woody plant found in arid regions of Mexico and the southwestern United States, featuring elongated stems topped with scarlet blossoms and deciduous foliage that emerges seasonally in response to moisture
3. A spiny woody plant of southwestern desert regions with long whip-like branches bearing brilliant red terminal flowers and ephemeral leaves that emerge only during wet periods

Etymology: Ocotillo is a Spanish diminutive built on "ocote", a word for resinous pine wood used as kindling and torches. The plant's name comes from the Mexican Spanish "ocote", borrowed from Nahuatl "ocotl", meaning pine. The Spanish ending "-illo" makes it a little one, so the name roughly means "little pine" or "little torch-wood," a fitting label for a shrub whose tall, dry, thorny stems look like sticks of kindling. The plant itself grows across the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts of the American Southwest and northern Mexico, sending up clusters of bare, whip-like canes that burst into red blooms after rain. Its name spread into English through the Spanish of the region, so the word carries the trace of a Nahuatl-speaking pine tradition into the vocabulary of desert travelers.