Category Archives: Arizona
Some of the Best Small-town 4th of July Parades Can be Found in Arizona
Flagstaff, Arizona always hosts a huge celebration for the 4th of July. This year’s parade was a great example. There were 106 entries in the fun-filled, patriotic parade. Here are a few. Enjoy.
Hiking in the Cool Country of Northern Arizona
A short, easy Summer loop hike from Snow Bowl Road on the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff leads to Alfa Fia Tank.
The Trailhead for Alfa Fia Tank begins at this post and rail fenced meadow. Parking a car is easy.
The San Francisco Peaks as seen from the shoulder of the mountain.
A butterfly on wild Iris.
Deep ferns line the trail.
Aspen, Spruce and Ponderosa Pine trees.
The first view of the meadow and the distant cinder cones of the San Francisco Volcanic Field.
Alfa Fia Tank.
Tall Aspens surround the meadow.
The meadow offers many great picnic spots.
The area once was fenced, but only the posts and a few strands of barbed wire remain.
Rain closes in on the trail. The Summer monsoon season typically lasts through July, with frequent showers and thunderstorms.
Filled with Surprises
I enjoy finding things about Arizona that are new to me after living here for a lifetime. I grew up hiking with my father and scouring the ground ahead and around me for rocks that he would help me identify. I find myself doing the same thing now with plants. Sometimes the new ones are minuscule, as this morning’s find.
I took a quick hike in the Cave Creek area, and deep in a wash were these amazingly tiny specimens. Can you spot them?
Sometimes to really see what’s out there in nature, you have to get in really close.
Yes, crawling about on hands and knees can be dirty and awkward, and I do have to watch out for spines and biting things, but the interesting things are there to be found. These tiny flowers bloom in the desert in April and are called Miniature Wool Star, Eriastrum diffusum, Phlox Family (Polemoniaceae) I don’t recall seeing them before, but they actually are very common. Often they might be larger than these, up to 8 inches in height. These were barely 2 inches off the ground.
The Desert Botanical Garden Butterfly Pavilion
Naturally, once all the desert plants begin producing bright flowers, the first to be aware of them are the various types of pollinators. This is a small sample of the many beautiful butterflies housed in the spacious Butterfly Pavilion within the Desert Botanical Garden.
Agraulis vanillae, Gulf Fritillary
Anartia jatrophae, White Peacock
Battus philenor, Pipevine Swallowtail
Buckeye, Vanessa cardui_
Zebra Longwing
Male Papillio troilus, Spicebush Swallowtail
Zebra Longwing, Heliconius charitonius
A Zebra Longwing, Heliconius charitonius
Bursting with Vibrant Color
A bee wallows in the pollen filling this yellow prickly pear bloom.
At this time of year the Sonoran desert is filled with flowering cacti. These samples of prickly pear flowers are all from the Desert Botanical Garden, but you can encounter them throughout the Arizona desert. These hardy plants adapt to suit their location and are found throughout the state, from lowland deserts to high elevations.
A bee is making an interesting approach to the flowers on this pricklypear.
This prickly pear has lovely yellow blossoms and very long spines.
Englemann’s Prickly Pear (Opuntia engelmannii) has pink buds but yellow flowers.
This Beavertail Prickly Pear has bright pink flowers.
A delicate orange flower on a large opuntia, or Prickly Pear cactus.
A Bunny Ears Prickly Pear Cactus. Opuntia microdasys
Brilliant orange flowers cover this large prickly pear.
The Life of an Arizona Hedgehog
Hedgehog cacti grow from seeds found within their fruit and spread by the birds and desert animals that eat them. A clump of columnar stems four to twelve inches tall makes up a single cactus. A cactus might have sixty stems in a clump. There are many varieties of Hedgehog cacti.
At low altitudes in the Sonoran desert, the most common Hedgehog is the Saint’s Cactus, or Strawberry Cactus, Engelmann’s Hedgehog, a member of the Cactaceae, Echinocereus engelmannii.
March is a good month to look for Hedgehogs in the desert, as they begin blooming at this time of year. The Engelmann’s Hedgehog produces purple to magenta blooms that are two to three and a half inches wide. This cactus blooms during the daytime and closes at night. The red fruit will mature in late Spring or early Summer.
They are said to taste like strawberries and are a favorite of small animals and birds like the curve-bill Thrasher, which can easily reach the fruit with its long bill.
At higher altitudes, the Claret Cup or Crimson Hedgehog, Echinocereus triglochidiatus grows.
Claret Cup or Crimson Hedgehog is shorter and more densely arranged than the Engelmann’s Hedgehog. They also differ in that the Claret Cup typically blooms at night and closes during the day. They are the only Hedgehog cacti with red flowers.
A Plant with no Chlorophyll?
These brown stalks appear in the Ponderosa Pine forest every year. Despite their brown color they are plants.
No part of the plant has chlorophyll and they are parasitic on mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. Most plants in a natural setting form a mutual symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi. The fungi filaments greatly increase the nutrient uptake of plants and in turn receive food. The parasitic Woodland Pinedrops do not create a mutual relationship and only take from the fungi.
The flowers of Woodland Pinedrops
The season of wildflowers for northern Arizona
Manyflower Gromwell
Elderberry wine? Elderberry pie? Elderberry jelly?
The blue elderberries of northern Arizona are ripening! There are various names for this plant, including elder, Arizona elderberry, American elder, sweet elder, blueberry elder and more. It also has various taxonomic names and changes have recently occurred. Southwest Biodiversity (swbiodiversity.org) lists it as Sambucus cerulea. All parts of the Elderberry plant are valuable as healing plants in many folk remedies. Flowers are even used medicinally and can be prepared as a tea.
Only blue or purple elderberries are edible. Red elderberry fruits of other species are toxic.
Why is Arizona so... 