THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND THE NARRATOR

One day during the holiday season

Joe and I went for a walk in the desert

I followed along with camera in hand

As Joe would point out this cactus

or that one I would

snap, snap, snap

or

click, click, click

SO

today you will see my photographs

and

he will tell the story

This is the Palo Verde tree.

Probably the greenest tree in the world.

The leaves are green as well as the trunk, the limbs

the twigs and the thorns. The tree we are looking at has a brown

hanger on which I believe is a type of Mistletoe.

The mistletoe plant lives on the Palo Verde

And you can see a birds nest buried in the Mistletoe.

Palo Verde in Spanish translates to Green Stick

The plant in the background is the Creosote Bush. It is one of the few desert plants which does not have thorns.

Its defence is that it tastes so bad that nothing will eat the leaves.

It smells like the wood preservative Creosote

When it rains or when you breathe upon the leaves in your hand you can smell the bush.

The plant in the foreground I believe is a Brittle Bush.

In May there are some areas of the desert that are a bright yellow from its flower for acres and acres.

Here are a couple of Saguaro standing beside a couple of Palo Verde surrounded by Creosote bushes.

These Saguaro are probably over 100 years old. They don't even start growing an arm until they are 75 years old

Full maturity is 200 years  and it may then have several dozen arms.

This one is a Staghorn Cholla.

Not a good one to run into  but it has several sisters that are worse

This is one of the sisters - a Chain Fruit Cholla.

It can grow to 12 foot in height and 12 foot wide.

It is one of the sisters referred to as a jumping cactus.

If you are in a close proximity of the cactus the buds seen to jump at your body.

In reality you have to brush against the cactus to attract the bud.

And when it attaches, you had best have a freind with tweezers pliers or a comb to get it off. 

The other sister that is not nice is the Teddy Bear Cholla, but we didn't see any in our walk

This is a clump of Hedgehog Cacti

This is the skelton of  either a Staghorn or a Chain Fruit Cholla

This close up  shows the network of holes in the woody skeleton

It is quite strong and decorates many  gardens in the park

This is the skeleton of a Saguaro.

The barrel can be broken up into individual sticks for fence posts and walking sticks.

This is Desert Shoe or Cactus Boot on the skeleton of a Saguaro

This is the entrance hole to a Desert Boot on a living Saguaro.

Woodpeckers cut into the interior of the Saguaro and form a little cave for a nest. The cactus secreets a

pulpy stuff that covers the walls of the cave and forms the Boot.

When the cactus dies the green rind of the plant rots away but the boot remains with the ribs.

Here we have two Barrel cacti

They are similar to the Saguaro when they are young except that the thorns are hooked like fishhooks

whereas the Saguaro thorns are straight like needles.

The barrels are useful for locating direction because they usually lean in a southerly direction.

They are also said to be useful if you are in desperate need of water

Chop the top and squeeze the pulp for liquid.

A Saguaro with a number of bird houses

A Saguaro that will not make it

Heading out of our backyard tour to our Desert Home