Natural History Wanderings

Paul at Boyce Thompson Arboretum reports:

” ‘The Peachville Poppies’ four miles north on Silver King Mine Road were still photogenic Sunday & well worth the drive – though they’re on the wane this week. An entire hillside of Montana Mountain appeared covered with goldpoppies when we looked west driving up the Silver King Mine Road. Haven’t thought to mention the roadside color on the highway leading here – but that’s worth today’s post: motorists approaching on highway 60 will see brittlebush, lupines, globemallow and fairy duster lining the breakdown lanes along the Superstition Freeway – with particularly robust and hot-pink Parry’s Penstemon just west of the Arboretum.
Continue past the Arboretum and up into Queen Creek Canyon and you’ll find a few rare singularities — including Red Mint (as in this vivid photo my co-worker Preston Cox got on our drive to work the other day), Deer Vetch (Lotus rigidus), Rhyolite Bush (Crossosoma bigelovii), Tufted Evening Primrose (Oenothera caespitosa) — and possibly most interesting of all, this unusual native Euphorbia growing out of the rock face in two patches above the highway 60 tunnel.”

Desert USA reports:

“Poppies were the main event today on Sutherland Trail in Catalina State Park in Tucson, Arizona. Lupines were in the supporting cast, in addition to cream cups and the other dozen flowers we spotted in bloom, as reported last weekend.”

Read all DesertUSA Arizona reports at: http://www.desertusa.com/wildflo/tucson.html