More Desert Plants

Every time Patches and I would go out for a walk (which could be two to three times a day) I would discover another wildflower or plant that I hadn't seen before.  And don't even get me started on all the different rocks out there--I could have created a beautiful rock garden with all the specimens out there.

I'm clueless to the names of these flowers and plants except for the desert verbena so don't look to me for identification of what you see here today.  And as always, you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

The tiny purple blossom on the plant below was about an eighth of an inch in diameter.

Desert verbena.

Another teeny-tiny plant.

To show you the scale of the teeny-tiny plant.

I don't know if the grapey-looking things here are the blossoms or the seeds, but they were hollow and weightless like tiny balloons.

Nature's perfect symmetry.

I was never able to snap a good picture of the quail here; they are too flighty especially with a cat around.

Springtime in the Desert

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Denny and I were out geocaching in the campground, wandering all over the hills.  I took my camera along and took pictures of an amazing variety of wildflowers growing on the rocky terrain.  We're about two weeks too early for the cactus to bloom, which is a shame because they put out tissue paper-delicate flowers that are incredibly beautiful.


I tried to identify these flowers by looking online, but was only  partially successful.  So I'm just enjoying them for what they are, lovely spots of color in the desert.

This flower's petals change to white as it ages and they can be blown apart like the fluff on a dandelion puff.

Desert hyacinth

This flower has the appearance of a small snapdragon.

While blues and yellows are the predominate colors in the desert, this small white chicory-like flower peeked out from under some bushes.

Desert cliff rose.

Globe mallow.

Desert paintbrush.

The vivid glow of desert paintbrush.

I call this one ghost flowers because of the way the fuzzy buds seem to create a sheer, ghost-like blossom along with the brilliant purple and yellow flowers.

The breeze was blowing too strongly for me to get a good picture of these snapdragon-like flowers but I was intrigued by the multiple colors of the blossoms.

This is a close up of the same type of flower as the picture above, taken the next day in a different location.  It doesn't have the same variety of colors on the blooms, possibly because they were more shaded and were newer blossoms.


There are a few more, but that's enough for today.  Who said the desert is dry and barren?