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.
I wrote this song about Lycium fremontii when I was managing the native plant nursery of Desert Survivors on West Starr Pass in Tucson....
The photos are mine and of a fruity canyon hackberry (Celtis reticulata), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium!), blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis!!) and the “rustyish” seed...
Unless you are a botanist and are comfortable keying out plants in a flora, the only way for the rest of us to identify...
