Natural History Wanderings

Wildflowers at Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Arizona has a new wildflower bloom report today:

Lady Banks Rose is in full glorious, three-story-bloom in the Herb Garden, where it has climbed up nearby cliffs and reaches ever skyward using the 40-foot-tall pecan tree as a natural trellis. Another Lady Banks blooms in the Demonstration Garden.

A few of the most numerous wildflowers youll see along the main trail are desert marigold, spreading fleabane, and Rumex wild rhubarb just past the Smith Building; goldpoppies and claret cup cacti at the entry to the Chihuahuan Desert exhibit where the Main Trail crosses Silver King Wash; hot pink Parrys penstemon, western spiderwort, deer weed, desert zinnia, globemallow, and bajada lupine in the Cactus Garden; mormon tea, blackfoot daisy, rattlesnake weed, desert chicory, purple pladderpod and fairy fuster above Ayer Lake; fiddlenecks, popcorn flower, desert wishbone bush, brittlebush and bluedicks at the Picketpost Mansion overlook and down the switchbacks; and a veritable jungle of wild cucumber and Phacelia thickets lining the riparian area along Queen Creek below the mansion. South American palo verdes Geoffroea decorticans are in full, fragrant bloom along Silver King wash in the Chihuahuan Desert exhibit, as are Yucca torreyi, Yucca faxoniana, wooly butterfly bush, and Mexican buckeye. Big Chief tulips are flowering along the Main Trail