If you’re at all interested in photographing flowers, go to Rackensack Canyon in the next few days! The Canyon is thick with Globe Mallow for one thing….so much so that the hills looks orange. Nice! Next are the Prickly Poppies. I’m used to seeing only one or two, here and there but they are numerous in the canyon and full of bees. A real treat for those of us who love to capture them in flight. I saw at least 40 species of flora making it well worth a photographers time 🙂
Tag Archives: desert wildflowers
Red Soldier Beetle
The best and most fun part of this Spring has been identifying flowers, plants and insects for my photo a day. This beetle turns out to be a common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva). Not so common to me but maybe they will be by this time next year. They apparently really like to eat New Mexico Thistles (shown) and find it a good location for a love connection 🙂
Paper Bag Bush
I spotted a Paper Bag Bush (Salazaria mexicana) on our hike yesterday morning. I’m always saying something is cool but this is the coolest! Each tiny little flower leaves behind a pod with a fruit (seed) inside. These pods puff up and look like blown up paper bags. Another common name for the bush is Bladder Sage but Paper Bag is the fun name 🙂
Acourtia wrightii
The most exciting find (thanks Chris!) this weekend was Acourtia wrightii commonly called Brownfoot or Perezia. The leaves and flowers looked almost identical to the Desert Holly I photographed last year but this plant was 2-3 feet taller. As it turns out, they are of the same genus: Acourtia. The dwarf version is Acourtia nana. This one and another were spotted on the Preserve near Brown’s Ranch. One was at the base of a Catclaw (ouch) and the other at the base of a Palo Verde.
The next day, we hiked the Cactus Trail at Granite Mountain and found several large specimens out in the open. Some were just starting to bloom and some were in full bloom as shown in the photos below.
Desert Straw
Brownplume Wirelettuce or Desert Straw are a couple of common names for Stephanomeria pauciflora.
The flower is a little over one half inch wide. The SuperMacro setting on my Canon S5 did a fantastic job of capturing a single flower.
We’ve seen these sub shrubs in the desert around us before but having flowers on them this year has made identification easier.
Globemallow
This beautiful specimen of Globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua) was growing out of a cliff in the wash.
Ahh…what a difference lighting makes! The top photo was captured in shade. This close-up shot of Globemallow was backlit by the setting sun.
New Mexico Thistle
Some common names for this thistle is New Mexico Thistle and Desert Thistle. I used a little photoshop to try to make it stand out from the background but green twiggy stuff against green twiggy stuff is difficult to capture.
I wanted a macro shot of the head but I was lucky to get anything because of high winds.
Delphinium parishii
I went to shoot Ocotillo blooms late yesterday and found this on the trail instead! I’m pretty confident that it’s a Paleface Delphinium (Delphinium parishii). It’s also called a Desert Larkspur. The flower is really interesting and reminded me a little of a Columbine because of a backward facing spur. I don’t know if this Delphinium is rare but it sure was exciting to see! (Cholla Mountain area)
Fading Phacelia
We’re still seeing a few Phacelia (very few) but wildflowers will probably be totally gone this week. I’m already going through Wildflower withdrawal 🙁
Rambling Milkweed
Rambling Milkweed (Sarcostemma hirtellum) has beautiful half inch flowers. I spotted it ,yesterday, growing on the Wolfberry (Lycium berlandieri) seen below.
