California - Spring 2007 Part I - Desert Week
This is what 2025 miles in 2 weeks looks like! In March 2007 Kenny and I took advantage of my Spring Break from school and went out to southern California in hopes of seeing hundreds of different kinds of wildflowers. Little did we know when we made our airline reservations in December that this winter was the driest since the 1920's! Oh well, I guess you can't win all of them! Despite the wildfires and drought, I found around 140 different wildflowers, 90 or so were new to me. If it had been a year like 2005, I would have at least doubled those numbers! I guess that means we'll have to plan another trip in the future! We flew into Ontario and spent 3 days in the Palm Springs area. While there, we went to Joshua Tree NP 2 days and visited the Salton Sea. On our longest driving day, we went from Palm Springs over the mountains to see Big Bear Lake (also because we like to avoid the interstate as much as possible) and then on to the oil town of Taft. While in Taft we went into the mountains twice and spent one day in Carrizo Plains. Our next leg of the trip took us over another mountain range to Ventura and the coast. We enjoyed 3 full days of the beautiful beaches, shore birds, tide pools and a wild windstorm. Our last segment was to return to Ontario where we took side trips to San Diego and Los Angeles. This trip finished our goal of visiting all 4 corners of the continental US!
Thick Yerba Santa; Eriodictyon crassifolium
Palm Springs, CA March 18, 2007 I spotted this wildflower when we stopped on the road up to the Palm Springs Tram.
Palo Verde tree bark; Cercidium floridum
Living Desert Museum March 18, 2007 Palo Verde means "green stick" in Spanish. The twigs and bark of these trees are green. The bark often grows in interesting patterns. Some desert plants are able to photosynthesize through their green bark since they lose their leaves during drought conditions.
These Cacti were photographed at the shop at the Living Desert Museum. There was a fantastic selection of cacti and succulents of all shapes, colors and sizes available for purchase. Xeriscaping, landscaping with drought-tolerant, desert plants, is an earth-friendly practice. I was amazed at how much water-guzzling green grass we saw in the desert towns, sprinklers are kept quite busy at night! Even more disturbing to me was the number of golf courses in the Palm Springs area; golf courses have to have grass, grass has to have lots of water! To me, golf courses and deserts are not a good combination.
Desert Kit Fox; Vulpes macrotis arsipus
) was photographed in the southwest US deserts exhibit. These small foxes have very large ears, light-colored fur and they live underground during the day to help them survive the desert heat. The large ears have many blood vessels which help dissipate the body heat to keep the foxes cool. Kenny later saw one of these little foxes during an early morning walk in Taft, it lived in a stormwater drain.
Cheesebush; Hymenoclea salsola
Palm Springs, CA March 18, 2007 I had read in one of my wildflower books that this plant gets its' name from the odor of the crushed leaves. Sure enough, when I crushed a leaf between my fingers, I smelled an odor similar to a strong Cheddar cheese! These plants are monoecious, meaning they have separate male and female flowers. Can you see the two different kinds of flowers?
Desert Mistletoe; Phoradendron californicum
Joshua Tree NP March 20, 2007 There are 3 or 4 species of mistletoe in southern California, each type lives on a specific type of tree. Mistletoe is a parasitic plant that grows on living trees, obtaining water and nutrients from the branches.
Cresotebush; Larrea tridentata
Palm Springs, CA March 18, 2007 This is a very common shrub in the desert southwest.
The staff of the Living Desert Museum presented a show with desert animals including this threatened native parrot. Many animals are losing their habitats to increasing development of new neighborhoods, roads and shopping areas.
Claret Cup Cactus; Echinocereus triglochidiatus
I cheated on this photo, I took it at the greenhouse at the Living Desert Museum. This is a cactus that I would love to see blooming in the wild!
Collared Peccary; Javelina; Peccary angulatus
Living Desert Museum - Palm Desert, CA
We drove into Palm Springs at night so we didn't know about the Wind Farm until the next morning. We were amazed at the huge turbines that filled the valley and continued up the mountainsides. When I got out of the car to take this picture the wind nearly knocked me down, so these are well-placed! This wind farm can generate about 3.7 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, enough power to San Francisco.
Palm Springs, Ca March 18, 2007 This was a familiar "old friend" that I had seen 2 years ago during my spring trip to Arizona.
Bob Hope's house (the large one on the left) in the Palm Springs area is an interesting looking home.
Desert Tortoise; Gopherus agassizii
) is one of the stars of the show at the Living Desert Museum. The Desert Tortoise is the State Reptile of California. These animals are federally listed as a Threatened Species, thus they are protected from collection and harassment by people. However, their desert habitat is threatened by development for new neighborhoods, shopping areas and roads. The young tortoises are eaten by coyotes, ravens, gila mosters, kit foxes, and roadrunners.
Roadrunner; Geococcyx californianus
Living Desert Museum March 18, 2007 This Roadrunner was caught in the aviary at the Living Desert Museum. It lived up to its name by running back and forth in an attempt to escape. I wish I hadn't chopped off the end of its tail when I took this picture, but I was happy to get this much of such a hyperactive bird! We saw these birds in the wild too, often crossing a road! And no, they didn't go, "Beep, beep!" :) Roadrunners eat lizards and snakes.
Mexican Gray Wolf; Canis lupus baileyi
Living Desert Museum - Palm Desert, CA The Mexican Gray Wolf is a subspecies of the Gray Wolf and is the only one found in the southwestern deserts. These beautiful animals were once common in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts and were found from central Mexico to western Texas, southern New Mexico and central Arizona. They were eliminated from the wild by the 1950's because they preyed on livestock. A captive breeding program is now being used to try and re-introduce some wolves into the Apache and Gila National Forests of of Arizona and New Mexico. I hope it succeeds, these are beautiful animals!
Bladderpod bush; Isomeris arborea
Caper Family Palm Springs, CA March 18, 2007 This is a very common plant in the Mojave Desert. It is easy to identify because of the distinct seed pods. The leaves have a very unpleasant odor similar to rancid cheese when crushed. Many desert plants have a bad smell to help them avoid being eaten by hungry animals!
Brittlebush-leaves are covered in little hairs to protect them from the intense desert sun.
Desert Marigold; Baileya multiradiata
Palm Desert, CA March 18, 2007 These plants were growing at the Living Desert Museum. In a good rain year, I would have seen it in the "real desert"!
spp. / Century Plant Family (some botanists put it in the Lily Family) Century plants don't really live for 100 years, they may flower after 10 years or so. However, many of them die after blooming and setting seed. It is common to see the dried stalks of these plants rising like skinny skeletons on desert hillsides.
) we saw on the trip, it was safely viewed in the Living Desert exhibit. Cougars are part of the southwest desert ecosystem, so it is possible to come across one on a hike.
Cochineal insects; Dactylopius coccus
). I was glad the sign at the Living Desert Museum explained what they were, I probably wouldn't have noticed them otherwise. These insects produce carminic acid to protect themselves from being eaten by other insects. This acid is used to make a bright red dye. Once I was reading the label of a well-known "all natural" juice drink (after I had just finished drinking it!) when I spotted the word "Cochineal" in the ingredient list. After I got over the surprise of having bug-related "food coloring" in my strawberry drink, I decided it was probably better than ingesting an artificial red dye! :)