Chris and I spent all yesterday afternoon exploring Tom’s Thumb which is the latest trail to open in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Exhausting but very exciting for me because the elevation and rocky terrain meant seeing plants I’ve only seen on the North State Trust Land. Besides all the common wildflowers seen on the lower trails, we also saw the following: Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata), Wild Cucumber (Gila manroot), Desert Anemone (Anemone tuberosa), White Tidy Tips (Layia glandulosa), Lemmon’s ragwort (Senecio lemmonii), and one, as yet, unidentified yellow flower which I hope to know by the end of the day. Also seen were two types of ferns. There are probably others but two were most noticeable. One was Spiny Cliffbrake (Pellaea trucata) and, because of its texture, I’m guessing that the other is Lindheimer’s Lip Fern (Cheilanthes lindheimeri)