Adaptations

• A number of adaptations allow plants to thrive in hot, dry weather and sandy soil. Small, deeply cut leaves limit water loss. Sunlight-reflecting hairs trap leaf surface water. Waxy, thick succulent foliage hoards water. Some plants have fewer pores -- stomata -- for collecting carbon dioxide than their cool-climate counterparts. Others keep their stomata closed until the temperature drops at night. Additional adaptations include long roots for reaching water deep underground, and masses of tiny surface rootlets for transporting water to the deeper roots.
  
  

Annuals

• Tentacle-like bud clusters call attention to blue curls (Phacelia congesta). This 1- to 3-foot, brittle-stemmed annual's spring buds open into upward-facing, bell-shaped flowers. The lavender-blue or purple blossoms have extended white stamens. Lacy-leaved blue curls colonizes hillsides and grasslands across western Texas and Eastern Arizona. Bees and butterflies feed on its nectar. Desert sand verbena (Abronia villosa), at no more than 6 inches tall with a 20-inch spread, has gray, downy succulent foliage. Its vivid pink, fragrant trumpet flowers open in abundance following spring rains. They continue in smaller numbers through midsummer. Wild populations inhabit the deserts of southwestern Arizona and southeastern California. A tendency to self-sew makes this annual a good ground cover choice.
  
  

Perennials

• Spring-flowering wild foxglove (Penstemon cobaea) stands 1 to 2 feet high. Purple-lined, white tubular, lavender or pink blossoms line at least one-half the length of its stems at the height of bloom. Pairs of thick, downy light-green leaves become smaller as they ascend the stems. Wild foxglove relishes full sun and sandy soils from the Midwest south to Texas and Arizona. Slender spires of fuzzy, round lavender-pink flowers top tall blazing star (Liatris aspera) in late summer. Grayish hairs cover the perennial's rigid, erect 1- to 4-foot stems. The linear, narrow-leaved sun-lover grows in sandy, dry prairie soils from the Upper Midwest south to the Gulf Coast and across the Upper South. Hummingbird and butterflies flock to both plants.
  
  

Shrubs

• Flame acanthus (Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii) pairs showy, exfoliating bark with blazing-orange, hummingbird-enticing blooms. The rain-triggered, summer-to-fall flowers glow against its pale green, lance-like leaves. This 3- to 5-foot shrub grows favors well-drained sand, but adapts to a range of western and south-central Texas soils. Chamise, or greasewood, Adenostoma fasciculatum) grows on dry, sandy slopes and in the chaparral of California's Coastal Range. While it's effective for erosion control, its resins make the 6- to 10-foot shrub highly flammable. Chamise adapts to dry heat by entering summer dormancy and shedding its reddish bark and branches. In cool weather, ornamental clusters of yellow-stamened, white flowers open against its olive-green foliage.