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| House window on Main Ave, Tucson, AZ (3/16/2013) |
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| 9/1/2012, Saguaro National Park East, Tucson, Arizona |
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| 9/2/2012, Saguaro National Park East, Tucson, Arizona |
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| 9/2/2012, Saguaro National Park East |
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| 9/2/2012, Saguaro National Park East |
 9/2/2012, Saguaro National Park East |
Spotted several nice cacti flowers last week. The red fish hook cacti above is right outside my home office window. It was a naturally occuring cacti started by a passing bird that I relocated away from my foundation to its current location. Seems to have tolerated the move just fine.
And the rest of these guys were taken Friday at a brief stop at Tucson Botanical Gardens...
I've heard of jumping cacti before, but dancing? Spotted on the side of Tumamoc Hill yesterday, dancing to MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" music... Certainly has enough spine to stand up to the judge's comments.
I stopped by the member's preview this afternoon of Tucson Botanical Gardens Weird Plant Sale being held Saturday from 8 to 12. Lots of area plant growers selling interesting plants.
I really liked this one. Looks like a bunch of small jade slabs arranged in a sculpture. Someone else beat me to it but was kind enough to hold it up for a picture. Its a Haworthia truncata (if you follow the link you will see one that looks like a pre-chopped bell pepper!). This plant somehow reminded me of the flagstone sculpture found in the Prescott's Yavapai College Sculpture Garden.
Cool orange glow effect from the orange spines on this one.
bent spines produce a weird look compared to the more common surgically straight needles found on our native prickly pear cacti
The one on the right looks like it could have grow on the floor of a dark, damp cave
plants sometime dream of flying... or crawling...
a nice collection of different types of living rocks
I dropped by Mesquite Valley Growers nursery today to pick up a few fresh patio plants and found that their Easter Lily cacti were in bloom.
I was watching a TV show the other day and heard a plant person say that the only color flower that you can't find on a cactus is blue. Anyone know if that's the case? I don't think I've seen a blue one...
Talk about a crown of color!
They have a nice selection of fountains. I'd like to add a fountain someday to my backyard. I've gotten rid of a small patch of grass around my patio and am trying to figure out what I want to do with things there.
This is one of several varieties of catclaw found at the nursery. They don't seem too serious about selling them... Seems they are always found at a different location than the last time I visited, and then often out of the way. This fellow was resting behind a bunch of pots. Seems like a great place to be a mouser / guard cat / greeter.
This has got to be one of my favorite interpretive signs... This is at the Tucson Botanical Gardens and the cactus reading the sign grows along an adjacent tree and drops down to emphasize "...distinguished from all other plants...".
Several people commented on my previous post showing a picture of a new saguaro arm emerging from inside the saguaro (rather than a bud type growth). While wandering the saguaro forest this morning I looked around at new arms to see if my previous picture was an anomaly or not. From what I could see, it does appear that the new arms break out from under the parent column's cover. I took a close look at the saguaro above which had several young arms of different ages... Interesting.
Still signs of breaking out from inside the column.
Side view showing the tear out which seems to disappear as the arm grows larger.
And here's the tip of the start of an arm, currently a little larger than a golf ball.
Tucson received a nice light snowfall this morning. I took an optional holiday from work -- drove out to Saguaro National Park at 7 am to wander around and take a few snaps. The picture above is looking North across Tucson at the Santa Catalina mountains, the top of which received a fresh 18 inches of snow. Where I'm standing received maybe an inch or so, melting pretty fast.
The saguaros were all wearing snow caps.
Looking toward the Rincon Mountains which border the east side of the Tucson valley.
I saw a solitary deer walking along the loop road. We made eye contact and were both momentarily relieved to see other warm prey in the area, given the number of mountain lion warning signs.
The low elevation snow was melting pretty fast
Winter barrel cactus sprouts anyone? Perhaps on a salad?
I took a break from hitting the books today and took a quick 6 mile hike through part of Saguaro National Park (SNP). SNP is about a 10 minute drive from my house. I was really happy that the Curved Billed Thrasher stayed put long enough for me to snap a picture.
Beautiful day out today -- its supposed to get windy tonight before our next storm hits. I took the Shantz Trail out past Pink Hill to Squeeze Corral Trail and back via the Cholla Trail. Quite a few people out on the trails today, including several on horseback.
Even in the dormant winter months, colors linger from summertime.
This is part of the internal framework of a dead prickly pear cactus pad.
A new arm starts to emerge out of the side of a saguaro
A really strange cactus in the foreground
This is what happens when you take phototropism too seriously...
Looking NW toward the Santa Catalina mountains north of Tucson. This range peaks at 9157 feet, has a pine forest on top, and even a ski area. About an hour's drive from Tucson will put one on top.
Trail head sign warning of mountain lion sightings as well as reports of rabid bobcats and foxes. It seems like we've had a lot a rabid bobcats in particular in the last few years.
