A catkin fallen onto a paloverde thorn

As I walked along a tributary of Bull Creek on March 15th I noticed a tall tree with catkins on many of its upper branches. (Sorry, I don’t know what kind of tree it was.) Then I noticed that a few of the catkins had fallen onto the ground near where I was standing, and on the way down one had even gotten snagged on the thorn of a paloverde tree, Parkinsonia aculeata, where it was hanging incongruously. A lot of things in nature wind up, at least temporarily, in places that do them no good. I’ve been in such places myself.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman