Growing Native with Petey Mesquitey

There are 2 species of walnuts here in the borderlands of southern Arizona; the Arizona walnut (Juglans major) that I talked about and a species called little walnut (Juglans microcarpa) which is uncommon, but I found it growing in a canyon on the east side of the Catalina Mountain above Redington along the San Pedro River. Travel eastward to the Trans Pecos of Texas and it’s quite common in that region.

In the eastern U.S. it is the land of the black walnut (Juglans nigra), not to mention other trees in the walnut family (Juglandaceae) like the butternut and a few hickory and pecan species (Carya).

I think when I first saw a walnut tree in southern Arizona in the 1960s, I had a “Whoa, that’s a walnut tree!” moment. Hmm, I still have that reaction and Arizona walnut trees (Juglans major) are magnificent! I have so many memories of hikes or journeys in southern Arizona that include walnut trees…sometimes up high in the mountains or as I mentioned in this episode, in a riparian canyon cutting into the Sonoran Desert. They’re part of the flora and fauna that make the borderlands so diverse and beautiful and occupied, not vacant.

The photos are taken from SEINet and are either by Max Licher or Leslie Landrum…I mixed them up, but I thank them.

The genus is now Hesperocyparis, but back in the olden days I learned the rough bark Arizona cypress of southeastern Arizona as Cupressus arizonica ssp. arizonica and the Arizona cypress of central Arizona with its smooth bark was Cupressus arizonica ssp. glabra. The smooth bark Arizona cypress is the one you are most likely to find in the nursery trade and there are numerous named cultivars…25 to 30! Anyway, the wild species range further than just parts Arizona, but it is definitely a southwestern native that makes for a great large tree in your yard or part of a terrific wind break.

The photos are mine. You can see the young cones (Ms. Mesquitey’s hand in that pic) and then the fascinating old open cones. Pretty cool.

We are living in stressful times and getting out of the house, if only to your back yard, is always a good idea. Native flora and fauna can cure the blues. I, of course, wanted to ramble on about a few other plants we saw during the excursion described, but luckily for you I ran out of time. The Berberis wilcoxii under the lichen covered rock outcropping used to be 4 to 5 feet tall in thickets, so it was fun to find the small thicket starting up under some Emory oaks (Quercus emoryi). And we are certainly going to go back and visit those Salix irrorata in that old filled lake…. those and a dozen other plants….next time.

The photos are mine and taken on the day described.  Those are male (staminate) flowers on the willow stem. And I love the little barberry thicket up against the oak trunk.

Encelia farinosa (brittle bush, incienso) loves rocky hillsides and gravelly desert. And though this native shrub has a large range showing up in the Mojave and Great Basin Deserts, for me personally the bright yellow flowers atop the silvery foliage shout, “Sonoran Desert!”

If you’re interested in ethnobotany (and why wouldn’t you be?) this is a good plant to add to your journal with its many uses, from chewing gum to incense. And good native plant nurseries grow and sell this wonderful wide ranging native, so plant or 2 or 3 in your personal habitat to remind you that, “the desert is beautiful.” Yeah it is.

I couldn’t find any digital photos  of brittle bush in my collection  (35 mm slides, yes, of course), but there are numerous photos on line. Well, of all things, I found and really liked these pics at at a web site about the Mojave Desert called BirdandHike.com. I thank them.

When I was a boy vultures were called buzzards. It’s an interesting common name that came across the ocean with early British colonists who had no vultures in their home country, but where hawks were called buzzards. “These large birds soaring over Jamestown must be a type of buzzard,” the colonist said.

Our vultures are in the family Cathartidae and we have 3 in Arizona; the turkey vulture, the black vulture and the California condor. Cool! And yes, turkey vultures will vomit when distressed or disturbed and yes they do urinate/defecate (your choice!) onto their legs when they get hot. It’s a form of evaporative cooling called urohidrosis. Kids, do not try this at home!

Below is a poster for the Bisbee, Arizona celebration. See you there?

Sandhill cranes have been wintering over in the Sulfur Springs valley since the mid 1960s. The expansion of irrigated agricultural fields and the availability of shallow waters for roosting ( Willcox Playa) were the draw for this ancient migratory bird. Now a days there are a few spots to see them: the Willcox Playa, Whitewater Draw and…I’m not making this up… the Willcox golf course. AND if you get out and about in the valley you can find them feeding in the aforementioned agricultural fields. Sandhill cranes, by the way, are Grus canadensis with some subspecies as well. So now you know. Below is a well known quote, but always worth the repeating.

“When we hear [the crane’s] call we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution. He is the symbol of our untamable past, of that incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men.” – Aldo Leopold

Growing plants and being involved in horticulture since 1980 meant knowing the USDA’s plant hardiness zones so I could jabber to folks knowingly (Ha!) about plant choices for their personal habitat. To make things a little more confusing Sunset Magazine created their own hardiness and planting zones for the western US. Jeez, Sunset!

During my brief tenure at the University of Arizona I learned C. Hart Merriam’s life zone system created in 1896 and I referred to and preferred that system for many years (see photo below) and it did make me sound pretty smart. Then in 1994 along comes David Brown’s Biotic Communities, Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico (it came with a big map!). Some nights that book still comes to bed with me.

So I’m guessing you’ve figured out that I’m more interested in biotic communities than planting zones. If you plant plants native to your biotic community…well, problem solved. Planting made simple by Petey Mesquitey! For more information and discussion on life zones and biotic communities we’ll see you in the Borderlands Biome Bar.  Oh, and that was our new pooch Burley adding his 2 cents at the end of this episode.

Anyone who lives in groundhog country will have a woodchuck tale or two to tell. Growing up in Kentucky I sure did. At the University of Arizona in ’67 or ’68 the first poem I wrote for my freshman poetry class was about groundhogs. Sad, but true.

Anemone tuberosa is truly a harbinger of the spring to come and I talk about this sweet early bloomer every February.

The photo of the Anemone tuberosa is mine. And below you’ll find a book highly recommended by the local school librarian. “It’s quite informative and considerably lighter in bed.” She should know…we sleep together.

I forgot to say that the genus Crotalus comes from the Greek krotalon or krotos for rattle or rattling. (A couple favorite native plants are called rattle-box and the genus Crotalaria) The specific epithet of the mojave rattlesnake is scutulatus and refers to the 2 or 3 are large scales between the supraoculars (above the eyes). The species name of the western diamond back is atrox from Latin for harsh or horrible. It’s the root of the word atrocious!

The photos are mine and if you’re still feeling herpetological, here are some sources:

Advocates for Snake Preservation (ASP),  The Tucson Herpetological Society and these 2 field guides:

Amphibians and Reptiles of Arizona

Thomas C. Brennan and Andrew T. Holycross

The first edition looks pretty good on my truck seat, but a 2nd edition is due out Spring of 2022.

Arizona’s Amphibians and Reptiles: A Natural History and Field Guide

John Murphy

A nice hefty field guide with a lot of information.

I’ve known barn owls since I was a kid in Kentucky and I always saw them in barns roosting or nesting up high in the rafters. I remember finding a dead one in a barn once and taking it home to dissect. Some things never change I guess, and though I no longer have the urge to cut into dead animals I still bring them home where they usually end up in our freezer. So you may open our freezer and find a collection dead animals in there next to frozen chiles or some leftover pozole.

I love finding owl pellets beneath trees. The pellets are the indigestible part of an owls last meal. The gizzard can’t deal with all the fur and bones and so that comes back up in a tidy oblong ball. And, I’m not making this up, you can buy owl pellets on line, which means someone somewhere is selling them to suppliers! I’m going to stick to selling plants.

According to the writing on the inside cover I bought my Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds in February of 1970. It’s the Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Oh, and it’s hardcover, which took a beating in its travels. I rebound it a few years ago (see photo), and it should be good for more time on truck seats. And I think I’m gonna start reading more of the field descriptions out loud, which probably means I’ll be birding by myself.

The photos are mine…you probably figured that out.  I like the top of the rodent skull in the upper pellet and look at all the bones and fur in the others. Pretty cool. And here is a link to yet another show I did about a barn owl that I found dangling from a fence line. Caution: I wring the necks of some Asian ring neck doves (wring neck!) in the episode.

Tyto alba on a fence

One of the most magical moments of my childhood was when I first dug up potatoes in a garden and we later had some for dinner. I was awe struck! The domestication and cultivation of the potato (Solanum tuberosum) that I was digging up in that garden or the  potatoes we purchase at the grocery store goes back thousands of years in the Andes of Peru and Bolivia. And isn’t it wonderful crazy that here in North America the cultivation of the native Four Corners potato (Solanum jamesii) here in the southwest goes back 11,000 years. Well, the range of Solanum jamesii is far beyond the four corners area and you can bet indigenous folks all over North America have been eating species of wild native potatoes for thousands of years. Pretty cool.

The photos of Solanum stoloniferum (S. fendleri) are mine and taken in the Chiricahua Mountains. The rainbow photo was taken by my old friend Kate Turner and taken from her little homestead the very day I was jabbering about in this episode. Thanks Kate!