Traveling in an RV leaves little - no, make that NO - room for plant and bird identifications. Yes, I know I could use the Internet, but not while riding along, and stopping at 8:00 pm, then eating supper, showering and writing two blogs leaves identification undone. While some of the plants I will picture here are plants that I know or almost know, I don't want to be wrong so I will leave almost all unidentified. If any of my readers have an ID book handy or are familiar with the plants of the southwest, please feel free to help me through the comment section. If you are reading and want to know the plant without looking it up, check back at the end of the day and see if your answer has arrived in the comments. Thanks for your patience and don't forget to double click photos to enlarge them.
Cool blue is the predominate color of the landscape whether it be grasslands, dessert or something in between. the sunflowers are a joyful contrast to the subdued blues and grays.
The sunflowers grow out of cracks and along house foundations as if they cannot be stopped.
The grays in the above fence row seem to glow in front of the yellow flowers growing alongside. The yellow plant grows in the more lush fields keeping a small rounded shape, no more than a foot high. One meadow home to Navajo sheep had little actual grass but was full of this yellow flower. I couldn't tell if the sheep were eating it. My guess is that they don't, which is why there was still so much of it in the field.
Here, in the above photo, he same yellow plant grows in front of a wicked looking cactus. This was the first cactus we had seen on our trip.
This little frosty blue plant, below was growing through a barbed wire.
The red berries of the plant below really stood out in the weeds of a parking lot
They look like many of he heaths that grow in our own highlands of West Virginia.
As I mentioned above, please feel free to identify any of these plants. I do so miss my plant books which I could easily use for studying and identifying plants while riding along, a luxury not possible with my laptop computer.
HELP.
1 comment:
The wicked cactus is Cylindropuntia californica. I'm sure of the genus, not entirely sure of the species. Cylindropuntia is commonly called Cholla Cactus. The sunflowers with the large gray leaves are Wyethia helenioides. I'm pretty sure of the genus, less sure of the species. They're called Mule's Ears. The red berries are rose hips. It could be Rosa woodsii, but again I'm not sure of the genus. You might get better identifications because you know exactly where the plants were found. Rosa woodsii is mostly found in eastern (interior) California. Rosa californica is more common, but is found closer to the coast. The plant at the top with the lavender flower is Solanum. I'm not going to guess the species. That's all I know. Those are some lovely photos of California native plants. Jordan
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