Joshua Trees Putting On a Springtime Show in California Deserts : Palmdale: Joshuas belong to the lily family and are found on dry mesas and slopes, usually at elevations from 2,000 to 6,000 feet.

Joshua trees, those shaggy sentries of the high desert, are in bloom.

To some passing motorists, the Joshuas’ tapered blossom clusters transform the Joshuas into grotesque, elaborate candelabra. Others may see arrowheads on long, crooked shafts.

“The wonderful thing about Joshua trees is that they are so nonconforming,” said Gloria Gossard, author of “The Joshua Tree.”

“All other trees and plants have a set pattern of growth. Not the Joshua. The Joshua tree grows any which way it chooses to grow.”

Joshua trees are a member of the lily family and are found on dry mesas and slopes throughout the Antelope Valley and the Mojave Desert, north to the Owens Valley and Utah, and east to western Arizona, usually at elevations from 2,000 to 6,000 feet.

Gossard said the public’s reaction to the Joshua has no middle ground.

“John Fremont (a U.S. Army officer and topographic engineer who traveled through the Antelope Valley in 1844) called the Joshua tree the most repulsive tree he’d ever seen. But when (William Lewis) Manly (who set out to find food and nourishment for the ill-fated Death Valley Party of 1849) came across the Joshuas, he thought they were impressive,” she said.

Retired forester Tony Baal of Palmdale, who along with son Tom operates a Joshua tree “bank” to help save Antelope Valley trees from overdevelopment, is one of those impressed by the Joshua.

“For every 100,000 people who drive by Joshua trees, I would say only about three people actually stop their car and walk through them,” Baal said. “If more people stopped and took time to learn about the Joshua tree, more people would be astounded by what they see.”

“The fact that this tree lives in the desert means that it’s tenacious,” Baal said. “It has the capability to store food and handle weather extremes.

“A healthy Joshua can take anything the desert dishes out, while a weak Joshua will fail. Simply put, the Joshua tree is a desert rat.”

Gossard, who covered city council and planning commission meetings for a radio station in the 1980s, heard developers, politicians and citizens discuss the cutting down of Joshuas for development.

“The stock answer to anyone who wanted them to stop cutting down trees was actually a question,” Gossard said. “ ‘Show us why we should save them. What good are they?’

As a child, Gossard would walk through the Joshua trees with her father and play a game, much like looking at clouds and imagining what they resemble.

“What you see with Joshuas is limited only by your imagination. I remember one stately tree with little ones all around its base. That one reminded me of a schoolmarm with her kids all around her listening to her tell a story.”

That story may well have been the one about how Joshua trees play an important role in the high desert ecosystem, which relies heavily on them to provide food, shelter and protection for birds, reptiles, insects and, occasionally, carnivores.

“Small birds build nests in the spine-like leaves of the Joshuas where they are safe from bigger predators,” Gossard said. “Study a Joshua tree in the early morning or evening and you’ll see nature at work.”

Once a blossom appears on a limb, that limb usually stops growing and a new limb appears.