The spring bloom is living up to its name. I’m seeing flowers that I haven’t seen for years due to the drought. This spring, the soil is moist and the vegetation lush. Astrophotography isn’t going as well; cloudy nights have really limited that activity. It looks like I might get one or two good nights before the clouds roll back in.
Here’s one of the flowers I haven’t seen for a couple of years. The Ajo Lilies are starting to bloom and there will be a lot of them. Unlike a lot of the desert flowers, many of which are very small, the Ajo Lily is a big and showy flower. This is Alkali Phacelia, Phacelia neglecta. Devil’s Spineflower, Chorizanthe rigida. Most of the year all one sees of this plant is the dried-up stalk. There are tiny yellow flowers hidden in the spines. The white flowers that show on the edges are Mohave Desert Stars, which are extremely abundant right now. Wooly Daisy, Eriophyllum linosum. There are other species of Eriophyllum too, I think this is the correct species but don’t have a comprehensive key to the plants of Arizona so I may have to revise. Pygmy Golden Poppy, Eschscholzia minutiflora. Not as showy as the popular Mexican Poppy, this species is not all that common either. A patch of Mexican Poppies. Here’s a strange plant, a shrub in the Nightshade (Solanaceae) Family. On a recent trip to Quitoboquito Spring, some fellow naturalists and I saw two of these plants in the Senita Basin. Paul Johnson is standing by one of the plants, it is about six feet tall. Known as Sonoran Nightshade, Solanum hindsianum, it is common in Mexico but very rare in the southern Sonoran Desert in Arizona. A closeup of one of the flowers of Sonoran Nightshade. At Quitoboquito Spring, we saw this Variable Sandsnake, only the second one I’ve ever seen. Sonoran Mud Turtles at Quitoboquito Spring. Perry’s Beardtongue, Penstemon parryi.
3 replies on “The Big Show Continues”
I didn’t know there were desert lilies. So pretty! All the flowers are beautiful, it must be quite a sight to see the dessert blooming.
Nice flowers, Doug! Are the butterflies out yet?
Mark, butterflies are pretty scarce, other than Checkered Skippers, which seem to be everywhere. I see a few Painted Ladies, Queens, and today I started to see a lot of Gray Hairstreaks. At Quito, no Howarth’s Whites were seen. Hopefully it will pick up.
3 replies on “The Big Show Continues”
I didn’t know there were desert lilies. So pretty! All the flowers are beautiful, it must be quite a sight to see the dessert blooming.
Nice flowers, Doug! Are the butterflies out yet?
Mark, butterflies are pretty scarce, other than Checkered Skippers, which seem to be everywhere. I see a few Painted Ladies, Queens, and today I started to see a lot of Gray Hairstreaks. At Quito, no Howarth’s Whites were seen. Hopefully it will pick up.