Monday, April 19, 2010

Arizona Desert Flowers



































































Because of the rainy weather in January, the desert became green. Large amounts of flowers decorated the desert in March and April. I’m not sure what name is given to the round green plant, which has yellow daisy like flowers pop up about five inches above the green foliage, but the roadsides are full of yellow blooms.

The purple lupine reminds me of Texas blue bonnets. The cacti change color or have delicate flowers.

It’s unusual for nature to have orange wild flowers but the desert globe mellow is abundant along Interstate 10. The golden poppies are more abundant in California than in Arizona.

We have always called the cactus with the pear shaped leaf the prickly pear cactus but I’m told that most of them are actually the beaver tail cacti because of smaller spines. I just know that you must be very careful not to touch a cactus. I didn’t see any thorns but after photographing a beaver tail, it looked like the palms of my hands grew hair. The tiny barbs on the ends made them difficult to remove.

1 comment:

Jerry and Suzy said...

One thing is sure in the Arizona desert -- you can take all the pictures of cactus you want, but don't try to pet them or arrange them. They bite!