A bit of a diversion... Just came back from a great 10-day vacation in Arizona during April and thought I'd share some of the local flora. Kinda hampered my local gardening efforts, but, well, it was worth it. Of course, I did have to do a little web research to see if we would catch desert bloom. We were going to be there at the tail end. While most of what you go to see in Arizona is rocks, my camera caught a bit of the living stuff, too.
Travelling north of Phoenix, toward Flagstaff, we stopped at Montezuma's Castle. Here they had beautiful Arizona Sycamores (Plantanus wrightii) with white trunks. It seems they have an extremely thin bark which mostly peels off. Makes a dramatic presence. The Sinagua used them to construct their dwellings.
Also saw creosote bushes (Larrea tridentata) with their yellow flowers. Some of these evergreen plant are believed to be 11,000+ years old. Hard to believe.
North of Flagstaff, we visited Sunset Crater, a 1000’ high volcanic crater with a number of smaller cinder cones around it. We hiked to the base of this volcano which erupted around 1100 and were surprised at how little vegetation there was in the landscape.
Hawaii is enriched by the fertile volcanic soil, but in Arizona, the sparse rainfall slows the growth. Found these beautiful, tiny yellow flowers in the flat area near the base.
The Ponderosa Pines were beautiful. Their bark was deeply textured, just wonderful.
And, lastly, here is a tiny orange succulent from the desolate environment of Meteor Crater.
No comments:
Post a Comment