When does Mexican palo verde bloom in Texas?

Most often in April. Across 833 dated, research-grade observations of Parkinsonia aculeata in Texas, the flowering season runs roughly March to August.

Peak April In flower 833 Examined 961 State Texas

Flowering 833 in flower of 961 examined

45%

70%

90%

97%

91%

83%

82%

91%

70%

66%

62%

54%

Proportion of examined Parkinsonia aculeata in Texas in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	9	20	45%	26% to 66%
Feb	14	20	70%	48% to 85%
Mar	120	133	90%	84% to 94%
Apr	371	382	97%	95% to 98%
May	108	119	91%	84% to 95%
Jun	48	58	83%	71% to 90%
Jul	36	44	82%	68% to 90%
Aug	31	34	91%	77% to 97%
Sep	30	43	70%	55% to 81%
Oct	25	38	66%	50% to 79%
Nov	26	42	62%	47% to 75%
Dec	15	28	54%	36% to 70%

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Parkinsonia aculeata in Texas observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 833 of 961 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in Texas found Parkinsonia aculeata in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in Texas, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Parkinsonia aculeata

Mexican palo verde

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in Texas. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.