The vast landscapes of the southwest are to die for and every once in a while I capture one with my camera. More and more I remind myself to just take it all in. Shout and exclaim, repeat the words “beautiful” and “oh my” and share with someone you love.
Oh, and try not to lose your cool over an invasive species that shows up. Easier said than done, I know… I know.
American Threefold (Trixis californica) is a great little native and it has been grown and sold in the nursery trade, so I’m not the only one that thinks it’s a cool plant. It’s a low plant with a woody base and so it’s considered a subshrub, but hey, it’s a little shrub, so how about “shrubette?”
The photos are mine except for the flower close up. That photo was taken by Patrick Alexander. I like it because it shows the clefts on the lip of the petal (ray). My photos were taken in the Galiuro Mountains and Patrick’s photo in the Tucson Mountains.
In birder lingo loggerhead shrikes are uncommon in southeastern Arizona. Some winters and springs it seems there is a shrike on every other fence...
In southeastern Arizona Datura wrightii is the preferred source of nectar for the moth Manduca sexta and you may also notice that the caterpillar,...
Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum is thought to be the mother all chiles, because so many cultivars of peppers have come from this wild rascal....
