Pines and Eucalyptus With no Water Growing in the Desert

Q. I have pines and eucalyptus that are not being irrigated at all. There is no irrigation applied but these trees are tall and healthy. What gives?

This eucalyptus has on applied irrigation in the desert. Sometimes trees can access underground water and survive.

A. Trees need water to survive. And large trees need more water than smaller ones. Some trees like your eucalyptus and many pines can grow deep roots. But trees need a minimum amount of water, or they won’t thrive otherwise deserts would be filled with tall, healthy trees like yours. They are getting water from somewhere.

Large trees use more water than smaller trees. Such is the case when the water was turned off to this mulberry.

           Plants are lazy, like us. Tree roots take up water where its easiest to survive. If they want to reproduce, then they need more than enough to survive. If the deep water is easiest to follow, then it will use it, if their roots can reach it.

           Tree roots don’t “seek” water in dry soil. They chase it. They “sense” water is there (compared to dry soil surrounding their roots) and grow best where water (and air) are abundant. If it can get lots of shallow water, like growing in a lawn, then that’s where tree roots grow abundantly as long as they can get air as well. If the water is deep, then that’s where roots grow if the soil is moist often enough to attract tree roots and they can “breathe”.

           Established pine trees grew “without water” at the El Rancho on the Las Vegas Strip after its fire. The property was abandoned, and the irrigation was turned off as well. Pine trees had to survive on only the deep salty water that their roots could get several feet below the Strip. This available water used to be considered a “nuisance” until developers saw its value in the desert. As Mark Twain used to say, “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.”

           Both established pine trees and many eucalyptus have the potential to develop deep roots if given a chance and find a deep source of water.