I don’t think the botanical name Phemeranthus aurantiacus for our local flame flower is set in stone just yet. I went to the SEINet web site (a great site!) to see if I could clear it up, at least for myself, and that didn’t happen. We will let the botanists and taxonomists duke it out. I was very happy with the name Talinum aurantiacum, but then I fear change.
I love the way you see flame flower’s orange or yellow flowers out in the grassland in the heat of the day. For the photos used here I wandered out in the thick of a “monsoon pudding day” and snapped some shots. A sweaty endeavor, but it really is a beautiful flower…common, but beautiful.
If you want to get out to see flame flower, head to grassland between 4,000’and 5,000’ in the southeast corner of Arizona. It blooms from now until September. It’s worth the sweat.
Petey thinks that the plant desert broom (Baccharis sarothroides) would be an amazing addition to a pollinator garden. Oh dear.
This was a fun episode to write…well, maybe fun isn’t the right word, but it was great to get excited about hedgehog cactus again....
Petey gets very excited about the flight of male Horse Lubber grasshoppers.
