Well, best ever in California's biggest state park. Have posted some shots in Photos already but these are from the Anza Borrego. Started really early cause it warmed for a week in January and now is staying relatively cool and rainy. It was amazing.
This is a wide shot from my other camera which 'Spin was using, I haven't figured it out yet.
This message was edited Mar 3, 2005 12:04 PM
Here's the reason they're called Sand Verbena
Up closer they're just wonderful and you can see the sand sticking to the leaves and florets. I just love these ones.
The evening primrose are always a wonderful sight, flowering so delicately in the harsh desert conditions.
There were spanish needle all mixed in with things, they're hard to isolate for photos
This is my best shot of a chuparosa bush
This is a bottlebrush evening primrose. It opens in fiddleneck fashion - the blossoms all on one side. see the toad lily type markings on the leaves? I can use all the clues I can get when they're not in full bloom. lol
BRB - there's more. ;-) ya just hafta wander up over this little rise
Oh Blooms....yet again I'm sitting here wishing I could have gone with you! Such lovely lovely photos of equally lovely flowers :-) I can't pick a favorite this time....
-Julie
That bottlebrush primrose is so cool! Great pics, yet again.
That vertical landscape photo with the mountain in the background is spectacular!
Oh Blooms, I don't have the words.
Hope you guys are still watching - there's more:
I've got some Ocotillo pics
Here's the whole bush/plant /whatever /;-)
And I bent one branch down for a real closeup. Not bad for one handed shooting and the color is better against a darker background.
Left handed, Blooms?
Now for the magic Desert Lily - the rainy season at the proper time [ I think it's Oct/Nov ] has allowed for an astonishing number of them.
Not crowds like the small desert sunflowers which covered miles of the desert, but scattered liberally in the eastern side north of the badlands area.
Here's one that shows the way the leaves curl and the way they frame this plant is lovely. They stand about 2 feet tall when they've reached their fullness. start blooming from the bottom up.
Here's another'n -
Here's more than one as we kept finding them. Don't want you to think they were all isolated.
One last shot... a couple of blooms had this transparent appearance. Later in the drive we found white primroses with similar transparantcy and figured out it was where rain water lay - what d'ya think?
Next stop down the road toward Park center we found lots of desert poppies - of both sizes one has mini in its name and you can see both sizes in this pic
That plant is spectacular! Don't know what to make of the translucence.
Thanks John, brain fog - couldn't come up with the word ;-(
Here's a straight down shot of the ubiquitous sun flower:
And oh, yeah, used my left hand in a cross over action to hold down the Ocotillo ;))
A desert poppy and a lace leaf phacelia up close and clearer
That last shot is super Blooms! So vivid!
Those desert lilies really are spectacular. I love love love those wavy curly leaves! The bloom heads remind me a lot of a flower here that i posted recently in one of my threads: Asphodelua aestivus (here's a pic of a similar species http://www.botanic.co.il/A/CATALOG.asp?qck=GENUS&qcatnr=A). We've also got a Desert Lily with spirally leaves: Pancratium sickenbergeri...can't find a decent pic of it though online.
-Julie
:-)
oh Julie, your withdrawal symptoms are showing.
/;-)
Here's one we had to go to the books to find - we've never seen "dead man's fingers" before.
That's a neat plant Blooms! I love it when I see things growing in the wild that look like they had to have started their existence in a GC! LOL
Yep, Blooms, definitely withdrawal. It's like breaking your jaw and needing to have it wired shut for 2 months. And the whole time you want to bite into a steak or whatever, there is perfectly cooked steak everywhere you turn yet you can't even cheat because your mouth is wired shut. That's how it is for me with the camera. I have bazillions of things to take pics of the past 2 weeks or so but no camera! ACK! But now it is in the "repair" process and the shop promised to have it back in 7-10 days (that was 2 days ago so only 5-8 days left) if not sooner! So, at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I'll probably drive everyone here mad with all my photo posting once I do get the camera back....til you all stand up and shout "ENOUGH JULIE.....leave us alone with your stupid pics for crying out loud!" ;-) ROTFL
-Julie
This message was edited Mar 4, 2005 9:02 PM
what's a GC?
oh yeah, book is "Death Valley in '49" by wm Lewis Manly in 1894... My copy is a reprint by university Microfilms, Inc,. in 1966.
'Spin found it for me on line. she shops there, knows how to find things. prices ranged from reasonable to over a hundred dollars. I said, I just wanted to read it. It was after reading one of those "Histyerical" signs they put next to the road, indicating his trail to LA. I'll let ya know how it goes, reading on bottom of list these days. ;- 0
GC= garden center ;-)
Thanks for the title...I'll look for it :-)
Off to bed now
(ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz*snore*)
-Julie
