Growing Native with Petey Mesquitey

The scientific name of the band-tailed pigeon is no longer Columba fasciata, but is Patagioenas fasciata. That’s too bad because I was hoping to start a new dance craze called The Columba. Patagioenas does not sound like a dance craze, but is a combination of two Ancient Greek words meaning clatter and pigeon. The genus was first used in the naming of the white-crowned pigeon in 1853 and it now includes 17 species. It was applied to the band-tailed pigeon while I was sleeping. My apologies to my birder friends. That said, I will still be dancing The Columba this summer, especially when it rains.

Southwest white pine is a magnificent native pine. If you are having trouble identifying it in a forest of towering conifers, look on the ground for the easily recognized cones, then look up.

The photos are mine of some cones on the ground and of a couple young plants in nursery containers.  Yes, I have a handful of sweet little Pinus strobiformis here at home…I can’t help myself.

Western soapberry is Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii and is in the family Sapindaceae. In the soapberry family there are around twelve species. I say “around twelve species” because that’s about as close as I could get checking several different references. This could be a good project for someone wanting a graduate degree: clarifying how many species of Sapindus there are in the world. One of the requirements for this research would be ability to enjoy travel, because you will be all over the globe identifying soapberry trees in their diverse habitats.

And here are a few things I thought might interest you. Our western soapberry tree is the host plant of the Soapberry Hairstreak butterfly. That’s very cool.  Also, I found that one source for the laundry and shampoo soap nuts that one sees advertised in catalogs is the tree Sapindus mukorossi of northern India. I guarantee you that there are countries much closer to home where different species are used in the same way. And by the way, it is the pulp of the fruit and not the seed that is sudsy, so the use of “nuts” in the name is misleading. I can’t help but wonder if our western soapberry could be a local source for “soap nuts.” I can see it now: LOCALLY SOURCED, SUSTAINABLE, ALL NATURAL (and gluten free).  Oh, I forgot to mention that in some countries the fruit is mashed and used as a fish poison…an easy way to harvest food I suppose and cheaper than dynamite.

The photos are mine and are of the thicket of western soapberry trees found at our place near the banks of the Ol’ Guajolote. The flowers are quite showy aren’t they? In the fall the leaves turn a glorious gold and translucent amber berries persist atop the naked branches through the winter. What a marvelous native tree!

We are so lucky to live in southern Arizona where you can experience so many different wild habitats by driving from the desert and up into the mountains. I got excited about this in college when a professor at the University of Arizona reminded us students that if we drove from the desert and up to Mt. Lemmon we would go through more vegetative changes than if we drove from Kentucky to Maine. The point being that the eastern US has a whole lot of the same stuff for great distances. I believe this was part of a lecture that lead up to us learning about C. Hart Merriam’s Life Zones concept. And those life zones I later learned can be divvied up into biomes, making it even more interesting.

Well of course, you don’t need to know any of this to get excited observing the vegetative changes as you ascend a sky island and maybe you’re like Ms. Mesquitey and me stopping constantly to look at interesting plants and animals…I suspect as much.

The photos are mine of some of the flowering plants we saw on our excursion to 8,000’ in the Chiricahua Mountains. When we get some monsoon this summer…I’m being positive here… we will all need to hit the mountains in August and September for some amazing wildflowers.

Lemme see what else? Oh, the Salvia I referred to is S. lemmonii, not microphylla. That’s part of an old name that keeps haunting me. Apologies.

And if you’d like to hear more about wild irises, below is a link to an episode from several years ago about our dog Farley and wild irises too. Really.

https://kxci.org/podcast/irises-good-dog/

Berberis fremontii is in the Barberry family or Berberidaceae…that’s fun to pronounce. Fremont barberry has quite a range north of the Salt River in Arizona and extends into Utah, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico. Down in the borderlands around you and me we can find the barberry species B. repens, haematocarpa,  wilcoxii and trifoliata. Go way west to the Kofa Mountains and you’ll find B. harrisoniana. That’s a bunch of cool leathery spiny leaved evergreen shrubs in southern Arizona.

If you were to grow some of our native Berberis species in a nursery/greenhouse setting you’d noticed that they’re slow growing, at least at the start. Horticulture is a lot about patience. I like that and wish the attitude would carry through to home owners who always want something “that grows fast.”I think that’s why we end up with so many non-native species in our domestic and urban landscapes, as folks just want something that’s fast growing and really couldn’t give a hoot whether it’s native or not. “Petey, gimme fast”. Deep sigh.  I sure spend a lot of time trying to convince folks that native species will be a lot happier in their yards than the exotics they purchase from God knows where.  “Oh, and did I mention all the cool native critters that evolved with these native plants?” I shout as they walk away…another deep sigh.

Anyway, now you know about some native barberry species and did I mention that there are nurseries that grow and sell them?  Yes! And yeah, they’re slow growing at the start, but hey, what are you waiting for? Go native!

The photos are mine of a Fremont barberry in our yard. Look at all the fruit and those pokey leathery leaves. You can see why birds are attracted to these shrubs when they are loaded with fruit. And all the species have yummy fruit for wildlife.

The genus Artemisia is found in the sunflower family Asteraceae and there are over 200 species found around the world in the northern hemisphere. Well, there are a few oddballs that show up elsewhere, but mainly the northern hemisphere. In Arizona A. dracunculus is one of the 14 species of Artemisia found in the wild.

Our native tarragon isn’t going to compete with the domesticated Old World cultivars in flavor, but I’m guessing one could start finding the more spicy wild plants and come up with some nice selections.

At our place I could be out on the land for along time looking for pungency among the kazillion plants. As the King of Tarragonia I’m thinking I will need some serfs…er, helpers to do the taste tests. Lemme know if that interests you. You’ll be working on the new flavorful borderlands tarragon called Little Dragon.

Many thanks to my son in law Jared McKinley and Richard Felger for reminding me that the plant really is tarragon. Really!

The photos are mine taken of last years stems here Tarragonia and also of the new shoots emerging and growing.

The scientific name of the ringtail is Bassariscus astutus. It’s in the Procyonidae, the same family as our local borderlands’ critters the raccoons and coatis. Further south into the tropical forests of Central America there is another species, Bassaricus sumichrasti, with the common name of cacomixtle, a wonderful nahuatl name that is often applied to our local species as well.

And did you know that ringtails are the Arizona State Mammal? It occurs all over the state, usually below 6,000’ in elevation. And actually it’s found all over the southwest, so I’m surprised it’s not the state mammal of other states, because they are so dang cute! Oh, and did I mention that they can read? Ha!

The photo of the ringtail on the branch of the juniper is by Robert Brody and I thank him. Below you’ll find a link to a video of some frisky ringtails courtesy of my friend Russ McSpadden at the Center for Biological Diversity. Cool!

 

https://www.facebook.com/CenterforBioDiv/videos/10155615218195460/

I do love wandering around little towns and Willcox is fun. And by the way, it was my friend and Willcox resident Steve Marlatt who reminded me of what a great place it is to use as a home base. He should know.

Now a days the town of Willcox promotes itself as the wine capital of Arizona owing to the abundance of vineyards in the area. I remember when we moved to Cochise County in 1995 the town was declared the ratite capitol of the west, but I haven’t seen an ostrich or emu in many years and make no mistake, Willcox was and still is a cow town. It has Arizona’s oldest livestock auction house that serves “all of Arizona and Southwestern New Mexico.” Maybe ranchers and cowboys drink wine at the auction.

In the borderlands look for Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa) between 3,500 ft. and 7,000 ft. on rocky slopes or out in the flats and of course roadsides of those places.  Apache plume is common around our little homestead. There are thickets of it all along the banks of the Ol’ Guajolote. It tends to spread by roots to create those thickets and they certainly bind the soil along that creek. When this native shrub is in bloom and plume, it’s gorgeous. If you were to plant one or two in your habitat, be aware that they do get large, as in 6’ X 6’, and don’t forget the spreading roots. Maybe one is enough.

The photos are mine.

Tecoma stans angustata is in the Bignonia family Bignoniaceae and there are a bunch of species of Tecoma starting here in the borderlands with ours and heading south into the Americas where there’s maybe a dozen more, not to mention many cultivars. All with flowers that range from yellow to orange or red or even colors in between. Pretty tempting, huh? The genus Tecoma comes from the Nahuatl word tecomaxochitl…what a marvelous mouthful…and it’s a common name for a number of plants with tubular and usually yellow or golden flowers. Now you know. I don’t know when or where the common name esperanaza came into being, but I love it. I’m guessing you knew that. All my photos of esperanza are 35mm slides and I took a mess of them over the many pre-digital years. So the photo used here is from the website  https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/ and taken by the botanist Sue Carnahan. A big thank you to her. I promise to get some of my own photos soon...there are some beautiful tecomas in the Mule Mountains. Hmm, sounds like a quest to me.

I have two books on my shelf about desert bighorns. The Desert Bighorn, It’s Life History, Ecology and Management. Edited by Gale Monson and Lowell Sumner, U of A Press 1980. A fascinating read on the ancient and modern history of the critters, coupled with wildlife management stories and reports.  The other book is Counting Sheep, 20 Ways of Seeing Desert Bighorn, edited by Gary Nabhan, U of A Press 1993. The “20 Ways” are 20 different authors writing about desert bighorns. I suspect you’ll recognize many of the writers.

The photos are from trips into the Galiuro Mountains. What great rugged country to see desert bighorns. The magnificent long cliff face in the bottom photo is called the Galiuro Escarpment. I’ve hiked up to the base of it many times. It’s awesome!

I arrived in Tucson, Arizona in the fall of 1967 to attend the U of A. Up to that point I had been born and raised in Kentucky, but gone to summer camp and boarding school in New England. I was pretty much an eastern kid through and through. Was I in culture shock in Tucson? Yes! But I started hanging out in the desert and fell in love. So much so, that when I went home to Kentucky on school breaks I couldn’t wait to turn around and head back to Tucson. Finally, I quit going back home. I had found a new one.

If you want to learn desert plants, there is no better primer than the desert itself and there are tons of resources from handy desert field guides and floras, to the Arizona Native Plant Society, the Tucson Botanical Gardens, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and fabulous web sites of local native plant nurseries. (Yes, I have a favorite and I think you can guess.)

Once you’ve learned a plant, reptile, bird, mammal or insect, well that will lead to another plant, reptile, bird, mammal or insect. Look out, you’ve fallen in love with the desert!

The photos are mine and taken a few years ago when I was going to give a talk at the annual Desert Hort Conference in Tucson. I remember that I went out into the desert west of Tucson to take a few photos and ended up spending the day running from plant to plant and shouting joyously to no one, but the plants.

And last but no least, Happy Birthday to my wife Marian who has shared so many desert adventures! I suspect there will be many more.