Posts Tagged ‘Arizona’
Life and death in Saguaro National Park
Behold a fishhook barrel cactus (Ferocactus wislizenii) in the eastern sector of Tucson’s Saguaro National Park as we saw it two years ago today:
Hardy as desert plants are, they all eventually meet their demise. Here’s what a barrel cactus look like then:
Oh, all right, it was Saguaro National Park, so I guess I’ll have to show you a saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea). This one had two particularly enfolding “arms”:
And here are the stately remains of a saguaro with upraised “arms”:
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
Cholla cactus near sundown
How about this backlit cholla cactus in Tucson Mountain Park near sundown two years ago today?
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
From the cliffs of Montezuma
Let’s get two things straight about Montezuma Castle: Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, had nothing to do with it, and it’s not a castle. No, this cliff in northern Arizona shelters the 600-year-old remains of a cliff dwelling created by a people called the Sinagua. And let’s get a third thing straight: that wasn’t their name. No, Sinagua was a name created in 1939 from the Spanish words sin ‘without’ and agua ‘water,’ based on the scarcity of flowing water in the region.
The prominent plants in the foreground are four-wing saltbushes, Atriplex canescens. Here’s a closer look at some saltbushes bordering the parking lot:
If you want an even closer look, you can check out a post about our 2014 trip to the Southwest.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman