I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky, with no clouds
The heat was hot and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound...
- A Horse With No Name, America
Even in a year of inconsistent rains that left the Cali annuals behind, there was flora to be found in the Mojave for our 2012 Herp Holiday.
Perfectly-timed perennials.
And, while the sandy and spiny landscapes are always stunning (and the lizards, snakes and camp-outs the true raison d'), on a bad year for botanizing, spotting these hidden pockets of color is like stumbling upon rare gems.
Our lava camp at the edge of the Mojave National Preserve
Granite Mountains
Kelso Dunes as seen from our camp in the Providence Mountains
Kelso Dunes
Providence Mountains
Typical Mojave textures
Many of the desert perennials we saw were the usual suspects...
Desert Senna and Apricot Mallow
Creosote and Desert Mistletoe
Bladder Sage and Desert Willow
Brittlebush and Mojave Aster
But, much like old friends, they're always welcome sights.
Of course, the brightly-blooming cacti are the true gems of the arid expanses. Here's the six species we've found in flower in the eastern Mojave...
Calico Cactus, Echinocereus engelmannii
Silver Cholla, Opuntia echinocarpa
Mojave Mound, Echinocereus triglochidiatus
Grizzly-Bear Prickly-Pear, Opuntia erinacea
Beavertail Cactus, Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris
Pancake-Pear, Opuntia chlorotica
Along with the colorful cacti, a few other perennials also showed fair faces...
Yerba Amarilla and Pima Rhatany - two flowers vying for hardest name to remember
Two big Penstemons - Palmer's and Snap Dragon
Panamint Liveforever and Ground Cherry, which is related to tomatillo
Desert Marigold and Hoary Aster in the Dunes
Ah, the power of perennials. Whether woody, succulent or herbaceous, and with roots, tubers or bulbs, they're the tough customers you can always count on.
Year after year.
Even bad years, when they're like jewels in the desert.
Prickly Poppy on Kelbaker Road
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References:
- Camera Trapping Campus - Mojave Herp Holiday 2012
- Camera Trapping Campus - posts from the Mojave
- Nature of a Man (this blog) - Herp Holiday 2011
- Herp Holiday 2012 - my album of photos on flickr
- Herp Holiday 2011 - my album of photos on flickr
- America - The Complete Greatest Hits
That is one heck of a view of the Kelso Dunes ain't it. Great flower pictures as always. I am impressed that you get so many good images and do such a good job of cataloging all of the species. I need to get better at that. Maybe using an SLR is the way to go for the ease factor.
ReplyDeleteOne more year and I think it may be time to put together a little self-published hard-copy photo guide to the flowers of the Mojave that the rest of us can carry along with us.
I began my adventures in naturalizing through UCSC's Natural History Field Quarter and a couple of weeks in the Mojave's Granite Mountain area back in 1995. I appreciate this post. Thanks for the memory spark and pictures of old friends.
ReplyDeleteYes, a great memory spark for me too. What a place.
ReplyDeleteD
Beautiful! That Beavertail is so bright just about pops out of the screen!
ReplyDeleteMan I need to get out of northern Europe and back to the Deserts southwest before they too are gone. Beautiful warm pics.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kevin
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