Friday, April 8, 2016

Desert flowers

The last two posts have focused on desert ferns, but it's only fair to share some photos of the incredible flowers we saw too. Thanks to above average rainfall this spring, the desert was truly in bloom, and we caught the end of a major flowering of cacti and desert annuals. Here is a small sampling of what we saw.

First, an assortment of cacti:








Next, a classic feature of the Sonoran and other southern deserts, Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens)


A beautiful Yucca and a few other flowers:



Phoradendron californicum, a mistletoe
Member of Malvaceae, the cotton family
Palafoxia sp., member of the sunflower family, Asteraceae
Funastrum cynanchoides, a vining milkweed
Epipactis gigantea, an orchid!

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