We are living in stressful times and getting out of the house, if only to your back yard, is always a good idea. Native flora and fauna can cure the blues. I, of course, wanted to ramble on about a few other plants we saw during the excursion described, but luckily for you I ran out of time. The Berberis wilcoxii under the lichen covered rock outcropping used to be 4 to 5 feet tall in thickets, so it was fun to find the small thicket starting up under some Emory oaks (Quercus emoryi). And we are certainly going to go back and visit those Salix irrorata in that old filled lake…. those and a dozen other plants….next time. 
The photos are mine and taken on the day described. Those are male (staminate) flowers on the willow stem. And I love the little barberry thicket up against the oak trunk.
One of the positive sides of isolating and staying very close to home during the pandemic is that I am discovering new places and...
Desert anemone (Anemone tuberosa) is in the Buttercup Family. Buttercups are the genus Ranuculus and so the family name is Ranunculaceae. It’s probably just...
There are several species of Marah found in the western US, but only M. gilensis in Arizona. I call it wild cucumber, but another...
