View from Contrabando Trail West. Ocotillo with leaves and some with red flowers.
These tall spikes are Ocotillo plants and they are abundant here in the Chihuahuan desert .
They are also known as Flaming Sword, Jacob's Staff, Desert Coral, Candlewood, Vine Cactus, and Coachwhip.

Normally, these plants look like dead rose canes, brown with lots of thorns. When there's enough moisture, small oval leaves about two-inches in diameter
will sprout from its brown stems. When the water dries up, the leaves will fall and the plant goes back to the dead cane appearance.
This process can happen four or five times a year depending on the amount of rainfall.

Ocotillo branches can reach heights up to 20-feet and live up to 60 years. Studies also indicate some could possibly be over 100 years in age.
Slender clusters of bright red orange, tubular flowers form at the ends of the stalks in the Spring and Fall.
In areas with abundant ocotillo plants it can look like a red haze is hanging just above the plants from a distance!