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!

Petey finds botanical treasures among roadside garbage. It always happens this way; stop to look at one cool plant and lo and behold there...
I always want to add an extra T when I write Yucca baccata, but no, two Cs and one T is correct. The specific...
Calliandra is a beautiful plant name. I like the way a genus name can sometimes become the common name as well. I wonder how...