Petey will never be a learned fellow, but he’s a pretty nice fella.
Tufted evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa) is beautiful wildflower of the uplands. And though seeing it on a summer hike sounds hot and grueling, it does bloom into the fall. If you want one for your own habitat, it is grown commercially, so look for it in a good little nursery. But I do hope you stumble upon it on an early morning hike in the hills.
White-tailed deer in southwest North America are Odocoileus virginiana couesi or Coues white-tailed deer. The naturalist Elliot Coues is probably rolling in his grave...
When I initially wrote this story I was using Lyman Benson’s The Cactus of Arizona as my reference and the queen of the night...
The specific epithet ligusticifolia for this Clematis means that the plant has leaves like Ligusticum or lovage. I used the name Levisticum for lovage...
