I like this paragraph from The Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness: “Psacalium decompositum is a distinctive plant that apparently reaches its most northern distribution here in New Mexico and Arizona. The mainly basal leaves are highly dissected with linear ultimate segments, and are quite large. The inflorescence is scapose and two to three feet tall. Psacalium decompositum is found in openings in the Ponderosa Pine forest.” What they said! By the way, in your favorite old flora or field guide this plant may be found under the genus Cacalia. Oh, and the botanists that changed the genus to Psacalium…

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) makes up for its lack of milky sap with the copious amount of nectar found in the flowers. Stand back and let the pollinators in! The photos are mine of the “clusters of golden yellow flowers” and taken on the day described in this episode.

The better common name for Terrapene ornata luteola is the ornate box turtle. The name desert box turtle is old like me….not Miocene old…maybe early Holocene. Hey, I recently read some nice essays about shrines in the borderlands written by the Tucson desert rat and artist Linda Victoria. Below is a link to her writing. https://substack.com/@lacorua The photos are mine. Oh, and I’ve talked about box turtles before, so here is a link to another episode: Turtles, Dogs, Plants

Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa) is common around our little homestead and beyond. There are even thickets of it all along the banks of the Ol’ Guajolote. It tends to spread by roots to create those thickets and they bind the soil along the creek. Oh, and when this native shrub is in bloom and plume, it’s gorgeous. The photos are mine.

I meant to talk a little more about the leaves of Physocarpus monogynus. I did say that they resemble the leaves of a currant or a raspberry…they have a toothy or crenate margin, but not only are they are crenate, they are doubly crenate. The teeth have teeth. So when you find this beautiful shrub in a coniferous forest you can say to anyone who will listen, “Look at those doubly crenate leaves.” You are cool! And, what is it about the common name mountain nine bark that strikes a chord with me? It sounds so wild and wonderful. “Call…

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.