budding, blooming, bloomed

Springtime in Tucson -- a very nice time of year! The paloverde trees are in bloom with bright yellow flowers and a lot of other desert plants are starting to bloom. I snapped three examples on the way home from work today:

These are flower buds on the tip of a saguaro arm. Each of the white fuzzy areas will have a bud emerge, grow, eventually bloom into a really nice white flower, close, and then grow into a red fruit enjoyed by birds and people. I took this shot standing on a rock looking down on the arm. Cabbages, anyone?

Cholla cacti on my side of town are budded out and just beginning to bloom.

The ocotillo have been in full bloom for a couple of weeks and are going strong, looking like torches. Depending on the soil and amount of water present, some plants have no leaves at all and are just bright flowers at the end of seemingly dead sticks; while other plants are fully leafed out. Leaves or no leaves, they are healthy plants.