There is no getting around it, every summer monsoon when the borderlands come to life it is so exciting! Apodanthera undulata, the crazy melon, can be easily seen along the roads and out across the land during this season. The clusters of yellow flowers give it away quickly. Those yellow flowers close up pretty quickly later in the morning. You can see the spent and tired flowers in the photo below. And check out the crazy ribbed fruit with the “disagreeable odor” as noted in Arizona Flora. Hey, it’s melon loco in the Cucurbitaceae! Yay!

One of the positive sides of isolating and staying very close to home during the pandemic is that we discovered new places and rediscovered...
Petey gathers acorns and ponders life found around an Emory oak.
Santa Rita Acacia or Mariosousa millefolia is found in the borderlands of Arizona and Sonora between 3,000 and 5,000 ft. Hey, two different countries...