I hope you’re getting some time away from your home and out into nature…out into the wild. It sure is easy to social distance when you are out in the desert or mountains, but Ms. Mesquitey and I always carry masks with us, just in case we run into a situation that requires them, like having to stop for gas. Anyway, get out and make some biome memories and we’ll compare notes soon!
I always want to add an extra T when I write Yucca baccata, but no, two Cs and one T is correct. The specific epithet baccata is from Latin and means berry. The 6-8” long fleshy fruit look more like bananas than berries, so the common name banana yucca gets it right. Another common name for this yucca is datil, which comes from the Spanish name for date palm fruit/berries…dates. Pronounce it in Spanish, not like the anglicized pronunciation of the town Datil in New Mexico. Perhaps a more accurate common Spanish name should have been platano, but datil it is!
The photos are mine and taken in the desert near the Winchester Mountains.
It feels like there have a been a couple false starts to fall, at least temperature wise, but maybe the cool days of autumn...
The loose rock fandango can get pretty elaborate with elements of modern dance, hokey pokey, ballet and of course some jazz hands thrown into...
Though other insects (garden varmints!) are mentioned, the star of this show is a type of stink bug called the harlequin bug or Murgantia...
