Growing Native with Petey Mesquitey

All the plants and their communities I was excitedly jabbering about are in the borderlands year round, but the sandhill cranes are only here for the winter months. You can google sandhill cranes and come up with some places to see them out in Cochise County. Here’s a  few places where we look for them: the Whitewater Draw is probably the best known and a great spot, but you can also see cranes at the Willcox Playa off Kansas Settlement Road or off Highway 191 north of Dragoon Road near the power plant…there’s a sign saying “Wildlife Viewing.” A spot…

When Ms. Mesquitey and I gather acorns to plant we bag up hundreds, but I can never resist nabbing a few if I see some still on an oak…thus the acorns in my pocket. It would be hard to go into a woodland or forest in southeastern Arizona and not see acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) or Mexican jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina)…they are quite common, but quite wonderful. The photos are mine. The acorn woodpecker riddled trunk is horizontal, because the pine tree had fallen and was laying across the forest floor. Can you believe all the holes?! The jay was curious…

It’s fun to have favorite plants to look for on excursions into the hills. Looking back at photos and my notes, we have been checking on this particular population of Lemmon’s milkweed for a few years. I’m guessing that as long as we’re in the area, we’ll continue to stop by for a visit. And yes, I did grab a couple seed pods (follicles) from a plant. Stay tuned. Botanical names of plants are usually followed by the name of who named it…the author citation. The genus Asclepias is followed by an L. That’s Linnaeus. And if one looked through…

The American botanist Soreno Watson, named the onion collected in Tanner’s Canyon of the Huachuca Mountains to honor Sara Plummer Lemmon. He made no mistake who it honored by using her maiden name Plummer and so we have Allium plummerae. Common names of this borderlands’ native are Tanner’s Canyon onion or Plummer’s onion.  Around our place we call it Sara’s onion. The photos are mine. The onion pics were taken just above Onion Saddle in the Chiricahua Mountain. The books came off my shelf.  Wynne Brown is local and wonderful.

The original version of the “El Niño Song” aired on KXCI, Tucson’s Community Radio, November 28th 1997. That version can also be found on The Best of Growing Native Volume 1, (a real collector’s item). Now you know. So here’s to a wet winter and maybe… just maybe… some crazy spring wildflowers!

Threadleaf groundsel (Senecio flaccidus var. flaccidus) is a pretty native shrub… grey foliage and yellow flowers! The green leaf variety, S. flaccidus var. monoensis, is quite pretty as well… green foliage and yellow flowers! We find that variety growing in the desert and low hills around Fort Bowie National Historic Site. I meant to mention in this ramble that old range plant books and even in some floras, it’s noted that this plant is quite poisonous to cattle or horses. This species of groundsel or ragwort (great name) is all over the range and you gotta wonder if the poisoning…

The botanical name for the southwest white pine of this episode is Pinus strobiformis. I read that specific epithet stobiformis comes from the Greek for twisted, referring to the cone. Okay, that could be, but listen, Linnaeus named the eastern white pine Pinus strobus and strobus is from a Latin word for a pine with aromatic resin. Sooo, I think Sargent (not Englemann, cause Sargent says so) named the southwest white pine strobiformis meaning it is in the form of the eastern white pine. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it. Feeling frisky! The photos are mine. Look at…

Hummingbird trumpet (Epilobium canum) kicks into bloom in late summer and early fall and the red flowers are spectacular! Until then it sits around being ignored…it’s not like the foliage is anything to write home about. And, in the nursery trade the plants are notorious brittle. I would always put on extra plants when loading a truck, because guaranteed, several plants would have broken stems by the time they were unloaded. Well darn, it blooms late and the stems break…I know, I know, but it’s okay, cause it’s a wonderful plant. You need one or two in your personal habitat.…

There are a dozen species of Melampodium and I wonder which one Linnaeus was looking at when he honored Melampus with the genus name. And, I wonder when the genus name started being misinterpreted to mean blackfoot and not honoring the mythological soothsayer. Anyway, another cool thing about Melampus, besides him being a legendary soothsayer was that he was “reputed to understand the speech of all creatures.” My kind of guy…er, god. So, a fun discovery for me in an old paperback booklet of plant names. Lemme see…oh, if you are interested in other plants named from Greco-Roman mythology (not…

I’ll let you know how this all goes. I have many acorns to plant, but I like growing little oaks and we’ve done this before. A greenhouse full of oak seedlings sounds like fun. Hey, maybe next year I’ll start going back to farmers markets! It could happen, right? And, one last thing; I don’t think we have ever gathered acorns without a wonderful encounter with some wildlife. Bears, deer, turkeys, javelinas, porcupines, jays, pigeons, woodpeckers, caterpillars. Between us, Marian and I have some great oak and wildlife stories Hang out by an oak (acorns or not) and you will…