Encelia farinosa (brittle bush, incienso) loves rocky hillsides and gravelly desert. And though this native shrub has a large range showing up in the Mojave and Great Basin Deserts, for me personally the bright yellow flowers atop the silvery foliage shout, “Sonoran Desert!”
If you’re interested in ethnobotany (and why wouldn’t you be?) this is a good plant to add to your journal with its many uses, from chewing gum to incense. And good native plant nurseries grow and sell this wonderful wide ranging native, so plant or 2 or 3 in your personal habitat to remind you that, “the desert is beautiful.” Yeah it is.
I couldn’t find any digital photos of brittle bush in my collection (35 mm slides, yes, of course), but there are numerous photos on line. Well, of all things, I found and really liked these pics at at a web site about the Mojave Desert called BirdandHike.com. I thank them.
San Miguelito (Antigonon leptopus) is quite the Mexican native plant. I read that it’s found in habitat not only in Sonora and Chihuahua and...
I hope that this show sorta speaks for itself, but I will tell you I wrote this story and song in July of 2002...
After reading the section about the canyon tree frog (Hyla arenicolor) in my old Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians by Robert Stebbins,...