The origin of the school's name comes from the surrounding Palo Verde trees.
The classic Sonoran Desert floristic community of saguaro, palo verde, and creosote bush can be found in the southern foothills above Roosevelt Lake (650–1000 m / 2133–3281 ft), while in the range's middle elevations (1200–1800 m / 3937–5906 ft) oak scrub and juniper predominate.
Despite intensive development, the butte and its immediate surroundings continue to support a variety of native vegetation, including saguaro, Buckhorn Cholla, barrel cactus, creosote bush, palo verde, and mesquite.
The dominant vegetation-type is commonly referred to creosote bush scrub, with palo verde, desert Ironwood, smoketree, and numerous species of cacti including cholla, saguaro, foxtail, and prickly pear.
The saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) and the ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) are common on the bajadas, while many of the desert trees found are restricted to dry watercourses; these include paloverde (Parkinsonia), the desert willow (Chilopsis linearis), desert ironwood (Olneya tesota), and smoke trees (Psorothamnus spinosus).
The "Bathonien" of some French geologists differs from the English Bathonian in that it includes at the base the zone of the ammonite Parkinsonia Parkinsoni, which in England is placed at the summit of the Inferior Oolite.
These pocket mice live in soils that may be vegetated with creosote bush, palo verde, burroweed, mesquite, cholla and other cacti, and short, sparse grass, as well as in lower edges of alluvial fan with yucca, mesquite, grama, and prickle poppy.
The genus name Parkinsonia honors the English botanist John Parkinson (1567–1650), while the species Latin name aculeata refers to the thorny stem of this plant.
Other common plants include: cholla, prickly pear, hedgehog, and barrel cactus (flowering from April to June); yucca, sotol, and agave; creosote bush and ocotillo; palo verde and mesquite trees; an amazing variety of colorful wild flowers in good years (February to March); and a lush riparian area which supports large Arizona Walnut, Arizona Sycamore, and hackberry trees.