While semi-succulent and a desert plant, Ocotillo is more closely related to the tea plant and blueberries than to cactuses. For much of the year, the plant appears to be an arrangement of large spiny dead sticks, although closer examination reveals that the stems are partly green.

In traditional medicine, the stems of F. splendens are used by ethnic groups to treat circulatory problems, cough, varicose veins, urinary tract infections, pain, and colds. Flowers are used to make infusions to treat cough and colds [18].

Answer and Explanation: White-tail deer and desert bighorn sheep will eat ocotillo. Additionally, bees and hummingbirds will also feed on the nectar that is produced by the flowers that grow on the plant.

Ocotillo is not a cactus as some think. It is a member of a small, unrelated family of primarily South American plants, of which it is the northernmost representative. It is found across the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and a small part of California.