When we first moved out to Cochise County we were so lucky to have a few springs with abundant Mexican poppy (Eschscholzia mexicana) displays. Distant hills and nearby fields glowed golden with a kazillion blooming poppies. Over the years, dry winters made those floriferous springs less common, but in 2020 there was an incredible wildflower display all around us. I remember standing out in some rolling hills at the base of the Pinaleño Mountains and shouting out plant names…well, at least the ones I could remember… it was that day we saw creamcups (or cream cups, your choice) in the wildflower mix. We even came across some pure stands of Platystemon californicus. Yay! 
Oh for goodness sake, I forgot to mention that creamcups’ flowers are white, but the photos show that! Now you know.
Anyway, here’s hoping we get a floriferous spring thanks to winter rain and snow.
The photos are mine.
Petey thinks kangaroo rats could using the seed pods of Crotalaria pumila as maracas, while they write messages in the dust with their long...
On cloudy mornings Petey likes to trot across the grassland. Or is that the lala land? Cloudy monsoon mornings are wonderful and there is...
Monkey flowers are in the Figwort Family (Scrophulariaceae). The species I’m jabbering about in this show is called seep monkey flower or Mimulus guttatus....
