This poem was originally written as part of the 2012 poetic inventory of the Saguaro National Monument East. Writers, poets and at least one radio personality drew a species name from a hat and were asked to submit a poem. This was my contribution. The photos are mine.

Squash bees are out early in the morning and moving pollen around well before honey bees even arrive. Research done by the Department of Agriculture found that squash bees “are largely responsible for the production of cultivated squash across North America and much of the Americas.” That is very cool, right? I like buffalo gourd (Cucurbita foetidissima) and I haven’t talked about it in many years, so this was fun. If you were to do a little homework you’d find that there has been a lot of research on both the seed of the gourd and also of the tuberous…

It was a recent morning of watching mud daubers come and go through our barn door that reminded me of the small wonderful things that happen around us daily. So I went to the Books and Bones Retreat and started a list of some small wonders I notice around our place and beyond, And, I know that we all have small wonders happening in our yards or parks and favorite hiking trails. Maybe make a list? Yeah, do that. Oh, ironically the mud daubers didn’t make the list I shared with you…too excited about so many other small wonders I…

Looking at storms out across the land from our little homestead near the Ol’ Guajolote.

It was Linnaeus that created the name Mimosa from the Greek: mimos for mime and the suffix osa for resembling. As to the plant jabbered about in this episode, it was Asa Gray that named the species grahamii to honor James Graham and probably at William Emory’s suggestion…fellow soldier surveyors in the field. The photos are mine.

Lemme see… I forgot to include the Baboquivari Mountains along with the Huachuca Mountains as a place to find Aquilegia longissima. I’m thinking that will get my son-in-law Jared pretty excited as we have been talking about how the Baboquivaris must have a treasure trove of cool plants. Yup, looks like. The meaning of the genus name Aquilegia is taken from Robert Nold in his book Columbines from Timber Press. A must have for columbine and rock garden geeks. And no, you may not borrow mine. The photos are mine. That’s Aquilegia chrysantha stream side in the Chiricahua Mountains.

Arizona rainbow hedgehog cactus is Echinocereus rigidissimus. That name hasn’t changed, but the black throated gray warbler is now Setophaga nigrescens…no longer Dendroica. Jeez, but okay, okay, I’ll make a pencil note in our Peterson and Sibley field guides. I like a field guide with checks and notes anyway. The photos are mine of a rainbow hedgehog in bloom. If you look very closely at around 4 o’clock in the shadow you can see a tiny hedgehog growing in a crack of the rock. For a picture of the black throated gray warbler check your field guide or head to…

Maianthemum racemosum is in the family Asparagaceae and there are two subspecies of Maianthemum The subspecies out here in the mountainous forests of the western U.S. is amplexicaule, so it reads like this: Maianthemum racemosum ssp. amplexicaule. Between the two subspecies, False Solomon’s Seal can be found all over North America…all over…and into a bit of northern Mexico. So wherever you are, search the rich damp soil of the mountain forest understory. And doesn’t “rich damp soil” sound glorious? It almost makes me want to create a forest garden with that kind of soil and shade here at our home.…

I love that sign. I call it the Robert Frost sign. I think Ms. Mesquitey is tired of me saying that. I love her too.