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 nursery is located right beside the Santa Cruz River at the base of A Mountain (Sentinel Peak). I used to perform the song whenever I did slide show talks and a version of it ended up on The Best of Growing Native Volume III. This is yet another version. I love the chorus and have always envisioned the song being part of a musical about Tucson or the Sonoran Desert that surrounds it. I’m looking for investors…I’m kidding.
I have so many 35 mm slides of this shrub and its flowers and fruit, but I took the photo used here from http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/ and by Tom Van Devender. He is a botanist, ecologist, biologist and wonderful fellow. I thank him.
Petey jabbers about monkey flowers and sandhill cranes and declares that spring has sprung in the desert grassland.
A Burro Weed Festival? Surely Mister Mesquitey is pulling our collective legs.
I suppose the thinking is that any wild flowers blooming along the side of the road will beautify that road and who cares what...