Friday, June 11, 2010

Desert wildflowers

Michele and I got back from our vacation to northern Arizona--Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, and Sedona--on Wednesday. We had a great time visiting with Jean and James, who flew in from Newark (and boy! were their arms tired!). I'll post images from our trip over the next several days. Okay, starting with loading the car in the driveway. (Ju-uuuu-uust kidding.)

Wednesday, the first day of our trip, we drove to Holbrook, Arizona. Thursday we went to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest, pulling over frequently to admire the view and to walk the Painted Desert Rim Trail. It was unseasonably hot for the time of year, we learned, so it wasn't surprising that we were going through so much water. Although the land appears lifeless and barren, it is teeming with critters and plants. Here are some of the wildflowers we saw. I need help identifying some.

Golden mariposa lily

Astragalus family

Desert plume



Cliff rose

Pale trumpets with desert globemallow

Desert globemallow

2 comments:

RetroMag said...

Very nice photos. Thanks for sharing.

The astragalus plant was interesting. Were those things hanging from it buds or fruit, or what? They look like big grubs. I tried to find them in Wkipedia, with not much luck.

P-Doobie said...

I think the things are seed pods.