Jumping Chollas!


At the risk of being boring, I can’t stop marveling about these amazing cacti and their indomitable will to survive. The desert has no secrets so it has to protect itself somehow. These fierce little plants develop some amazing adaptations.

                                            
Cactus spines hold onto moisture better than leaves do. One of my favorite ones is the “jumping” cholla, which gets its name from its ability to attach itself to anything nearby—so efficiently that they actually seem to jump onto you. The only way to get them off is with a wide toothed comb apparently. There's a variety called the "teddy bear cholla", which looks so fuzzy, that you're tempted to touch them, but don't be deceived!

Some cacti have barbed spines, like this fish hook barrel cactus. Watch out! This one is starting to produce fruit, although I don't know what happened to the flower.  Flowering season is in April, so I may end up missing it this year since I'm leaving in a few weeks. 

                                                
The ones we see everywhere are the prickly pear (known for its edible fruit) and one of the most impressive is the majestic saguaro--the "old growth" members of the cactus family.  They can live to be 175-200 years old! The more arms they have, the older they are, as they don't even develop their first arms for at least 50 years.



The agave plant is where we get our mezcal and tequila, but it also makes a sweet nectar, its fibers have been used by indigenous people to make many items, and it apparently has medicinal value as well.

                 agave plant
                                                                                                                           Palo verde tree

I found a lovely botanical garden not far from my house which was created entirely by volunteers.  There are tables and chairs where people can hang out and play games, read a book in the shade, or birdwatch.  I intend to spend lots of time there.  Palo verde means "green stick" in Spanish, so it always looks like these lovely trees aren't quite ripe, but they are quite beautiful. 

My friend Becca has been visiting and we were able to hike in a Tucson park called Ventana Canyon, where there are some unusual saguaros.  We also got to do an overnight van camping trip at Organ Pipe Cactus National Park. This park, at the southwestern border of the state, is adjacent to the tribal land of the Tohono O'odham nation, where we stopped for fry bread tacos.

               organ pipe cactus

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Incident of the Fry Bread and Other Road Adventures

Image
Forrest and his girlfriend Constance arrived around a week ago to accompany me home. Just getting them to Tucson was challenging enough for a few reasons, but they made it, with very little time to spare before we had to start the long journey home. They got to see the casita, but just barely.   Since we had only 6 days to drive 1500 miles, there wasn't much time for sightseeing, but Forrest wanted to stop in Prescott and pay homage to his twin brother, who'd spent his last days there 10 years ago. We  hiked up Thumb Butte in Prescott and visited the hotel where Miles passed away.  Though I'd done this a couple of years ago, Forrest hadn't and it provided him with some much needed closure.   The following day we stopped in Sedona, with its luminous landscapes, crowds of wealthy tourists, crystal shops and vortexes. Forrest, who has always had a thing for rocks and gemstones, kept weighing down the van with rocks.    The driving was long after thos...
Read more

Another Day of Grateful Living

Image
Every morning it is cold when I rise at 5:30 or so, no matter how warm it was the day before.  My routine is to sit in front of my beautiful kiva fireplace with my coffee, meditate and wait for the first morning light to greet the desert.  At the risk of sounding like a cliche, I like the focus of my early mornings to be on gratitude.  That I am able to wake up in this magical place every day is truly miraculous.  So I clear my head of the strange and melancholic dreams of night and my body of its arthritic pains with contemplative prayer and yoga.  Only then can I face another day. This week, having completed their grueling screening process, I was finally able to volunteer at Casa Alitas (which translates as House of Little Wings).  At the basic clinic there, I followed the volunteer doctor around seeing patients. When she finally turned me loose, I was overwhelmed by my first patient.  He was an African man, who spoke a language I'd never even heard...
Read more

The Nomad Moon Rides Again

Image
Ten days after winter solstice, I packed up the Nomad Moon and hightailed it away from the dark and rainy Oregon coast. Like a pioneer in search of a better life, I drove my covered wagon into the valley of the promised land. After picking up Savanna in Portland, we headed south on New Year’s Eve, a day I usually vow never to drive anywhere. In spite of  ominous disaster scenarios of drunk drivers plowing into us, or freezing rain or snow on the windy mountain passes of the southern Oregon Siskiyous, we made it to our first campground in Ashland. There we settled in for the night over dinner and a bottle of champagne, and though we didn’t make it to midnight, we did celebrate our many blessings. Namely, Savanna’s graduation from nursing school and passing the boards, my recovery from hip replacement, the life changing trip to Kenya and so much more. So armed with all the confidence that none of my fears came to pass, we relaxed, thinking Day 2 would be an easy 4-5 hour drive to Vac...
Read more