Teddy bear (cactus)..and bunnies!

Not that I particularly need an excuse to post pictures of cute rabbits (or hares - what's the difference anyway?), but it is Friday and that makes this post a bit more festive anyway.  Why not throw in a few pics of this desert cottontail.  Which, by the way, is a true rabbit.
 

 

I saw this in a small park next to what looked like unmanaged desert on the way back to Phoenix, right off of I-17.   There were literally dozens of them when we drove into the park, scampering to safety before we could even hop out of the jeep.  Luckily, I found this one hidden in a mess of cholla, or Cylindropuntia.

That genus name should be vaguely familiar.  Cylindropuntia literally means cylindrical Opuntia.  Indeed, for some time chollas (pronounced CHOH-ya) were considered members of the Opuntia genus, but the absence of paddle-like stems has finally merited its own genus.   

Above, a small cholla, no more than 24" high.  I am stumped about which species of Cylindropuntia this is.  It looks quite a bit like C. tunicata, but that's native to Chile and I doubt this plant is an invader, they were ubiquitous in Arizona.  If it was an invasive non-native, I'm sure I'd have figured this out via books or websites.  C. spinosior is the most common cholla in Arizona, but this looks too hairy or spiny to be considered a member of that species.  Frankly, to go along with the thematic 'cuteness' of bunnies, I'm hoping this is C. bigelovii, or teddy bear cholla. 

There are 22 species of Cylindropuntia in the United States, so chances are this specimen is none of the above.  Though seeing a common name like teddy bear cholla (called that because from afar the plant looks more fuzzy than spiny).

 Happy Friday!

Agave

So today, we are going to go back to Arizona for a bit.  I still haven't blogged about one of my favorite desert plants, the Agave.  This one below is most likely Agave deserti.  A common name for all Agave is century plant.  It's called this because the plant lives a very long time before it blooms.  It doesn't take 100 years, however, it's more like 30. 

The flower stalk grows from the center of this basal rosette of thick, fleshy, spiny leaves.  The stalk reaches anywhere from five to fifteen feet in height, growing as rapidly as 2.5 inches a day.   The flowers are yellow and can set as many as 65,000 seeds.  This is important since creating such a fast-growing blossom depletes all the plant's resources and after seeds are set, the entire thing dies. 

Agave is an important resource in the desert habitat.  Carpenter ants can live in the leaves and in times of drought (which is often) bighorn sheep chew on the leaves for their only available source of water.  Skipper butterfly larvae also rely solely on these plants for sustenance.

Below, in Central Park Zoo, there's a relative to A. deserti, A. americana. Native to Mexico, this Agave  is most often hybridized and grown as an ornamental. 

Chances are, if you like a good margarita now and then, you know that Agave is what is used to make tequila.  However, don't go harvesting either of the plants showcased in this post.  The plant you're looking for is Agave tequilana.

Mormon Tea, or Ephedra

I saw this small, raggedy shrub all around the edges of the Grand Canyon and it was part of the reason I was compelled to quickly find some decent books detailing the flora of the region.  To me, it closely resembled Cytisus, but as it turns out it was an altogether new genus for me, Ephedra.

The genus name should sound familiar, since when one gets congested it's likely they are buying a product with pseudoephedrine in it.  Of course, if you buy too much pseudoephedrine, you may be flagged as a potential drug dealer, since the drug is often used to make methamphetamine.

The Chinese Ephedra (E. sinica) is perhaps the most notorious; it has the alkaloids pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, both of which have been marketed as 'herbal remedies.'  These products were often abused by athletes as stimulants to enhance performance.  Most notably, Ephedra was linked to the deaths of Baltimore Oriole Steve Bechler and Minnesota Viking Korey Stringer.  Many sports leagues, and ultimately the FDA, have banned the use of Ephedra.   

This native species E. trifurca is less potent than E. sinica, but was still used by southwestern settlers as a tonic, tea, diuretic and decongestant.  It was even used to treat syphilis (though I'm not sure how effective it was).  Mormons, who abstain from caffeinated beverages, often drank the brew made from this plant thus accounting for Ephedra's common name - Mormon tea.

Ephedra is derivative of the ancient Greek work for horse's tail - 'Hippuris.'  I have no idea what trifurca means!

Berberis and Mahonia

Here's a shot of the desert scrub outside of Sedona, taken during the jeep tour I mentioned in previous posts.  Exploring the desert plants growing here was a delight -- some were familiar, like the prickly pear and mesquite, some were new, like pinyon pine.  Other plants straddled between the two categories - they were vaguely familiar and in some cases I was able to make a guess at their genus or family.

This scrubby plant below was one such specimen.  The pinnately compound, waxy leaves reminded me immediately of Mahonia and when I returned to the East Coast, my bag a bit heavier due to a load of plant books I had bought, I started researching.

Indeed, the plant is in the same family as Mahonia but is actually Berberis haematocarpa, or red barberry.  Both genera exist in the Berberidaceae family, though the leaf reminded me far more of Mahonia.  One supposes that the structure of the small yellow flowers, which bloom from February until April, are genetically more similar to Berberis and that is why they are grouped as such.

 

After the plant flowers, small purple berries form and are evidently quite tasty.  They are quickly eaten by birds and small mammals but if leftovers exist they are often used to make jellies.  The plant has never been 'domesticated' however, because it is a secondary host for black stem rust, a disease that affects grains. 

Back on the East Coast, in Central Park Zoo, we have the more refined looking Mahonia, possibly M. x media or M. aquifolium.  Commonly called Oregon grapeholly, the plant (the straight species, that is, not the hybrid) was discovered by Louis Lewis* and Clark during their expedition of the Pacific Northwest.  The plant is similar to the red barberry, not only in leaf type but in flower color and fruit as well.  However, the fruit on Oregon grapeholly, as the common name would suggest, are larger and look like concord grapes.
 

It is puzzling why the Arizonan plant is classified as Berberis considering how much more it looks like Mahonia.  Chances are you are familiar with other species of Berberis: B. thunbergii and B. julianae, though I would be hard-pressed to endorse the use of either; the former being invasive and the latter being prohibitively thorny.  

*Oof.  How embarrassing.  

Mesquite

Below is a fairly elegant specimen of mesquite (Prosopis velutina) growing near town in Sedona.  More often than not, this shrubby tree has a much scrubbier appearance, but in either case it is prevalent in Sedona and the Sonoran Desert.  Prosopis is a member of the pea family and looks much like its relatives - it has pinnately compound foliage and, more to the point, it has bean-like fruit.

  

One of the common names is honey mesquite, because the beans themselves are incredibly sweet.  The tour I mentioned in yesterday's post also included a sampling of the mesquite beans and they tasted like sugary candy.  Indeed, the plant is eaten by livestock and has been key to survival of Native Americans during historically tough winters.  

The beans can also be ground into a flour called pinole and can then be used to make tortillas and cornbread, to name a few. They can also be fermented into a fizzy, alcoholic drink, though I didn't see this on the bar menus of any restaurants.

 

The Prosopis velutina is native to the Sonoran Desert, but other species of Prosopis include Prosopis glandulosa, in the Texas and Southern California deserts and Prosopis pallida, a South American native that is prevalent in the drier parts of Hawaii.  Below, a specimen of P. pallida grows on the Big Island. 

 

 Prosopis is the ancient Greek name for burdock and it's speculated that the genus was applied to mesquite due to some similarity between the flowers.

Prickly Pear

In addition to the saguaro, prickly pear must be one of the most recognizable American cacti.  This species is most like Opuntia engelmannii.  It's an invasive weed in Australia, South Africa and other regions that match the climate of the Sonoran Desert, as are many other species in this genus. 

I've seen this plant in Barcelona and New Jersey - both locations that are just not 'right' for the prickly pear.  But here, in the desert, it was a pleasure to observe.  The large, ping-pong paddle-like leaves are covered in long spines and in the spring, the plant has very large yellow flowers.  I was sorry to miss the floral display, but thrilled to see this plant in fruit.

We took an off-road jeep tour at sunset in Sedona - in the photo above our guide is harvesting a prickly pear for our sampling.   Even though the fruit appears to be spineless, it's actually covered in very small spines.  Grabbing this without the protection of gloves or a piece of paper would mean you'd be picking spines out of your fingers all day. 

Once you have a prickly pear in your hand, you can use a knife to cut away the skin, then scoop our the deep red, beet-colored flesh.  I wasn't sure what to expect but was surprised at how delicious the fruit is.  It's tangy and sweet, reminiscent of a plum, though it does have a grit to it from the seeds.

The fruit, which is commonly called 'tunas,' is used to make jams and, appropriately enough, to flavor margaritas. 

There are many species of Opuntia in the American Southwest.  The region I was visiting is most populated with O. engelmannii, but there is also O. phaeacantha var. discata (tulip prickly pear) and O. basilaris (beavertail prickly pear), which is spineless.

Opuntia is named for Opus, an ancient Greek city where cactus-like plants grow. 

Pinyon Pine

Below you can see a pic of the Grand Canyon, taken from the Bright Angel Trailhead, on the South Rim.  I was so delighted to finally see the Grand Canyon, to me - and many others, of course - it's one of our greatest national treasures.  The far side of the canyon - where the elevation roughly matches the ground I'm standing at when I took this picture - is 18 miles away.  To put that in perspective, Manhattan Island is only 13.4 miles long.  Lanai is 18 miles long exactly.  The Canyon's width is 277 miles, which is more than the length of the entire state of Maryland.  It's compelling to try to comprehend something so vast, particularly when you are standing at the edge of it.  The depth, by the way, tops out at a mile.

Yes, but what about the plants???

 

Above you can see that, despite the rocky, soil-poor subgrade, trees have managed to create footholds in the cliffs.  Perhaps one of the most iconographic in this landscape is the pinyon pine, or Pinus edulis. 

 

Like all pines, the leaves are needles and occur in fascicles.  Pinyon pine has two needles per fascicle.  The needles are short and rigid.  The nuts - pinyon or pine nuts - they're the largest nuts you can gather from any pine. These are different from the Italian pignolis, which are the nuts of Pinus pinea.

 

Pinus edulis is one of the key species in the Pinyon-Juniper Belt - an ecosystem defined by the presence of the pine and Utah Juniper that occupies the region north of the desert but south of the colder canyons to the north.  Annual rainfall is limited to around 20 inches, so plants are adapted to drought.  The photo above shows the scrubby habit of a pinyon pine-dominant forest as seen from Cathedral Rock in Sedona.

  

Edulis literally means edible.  The nuts are in high demand by locals.  At times, people have even raided the nests of woodrats, gathering a yield of as much as 30 pounds. 

Saguaro

I spent this past holiday weekend in Arizona and took hundreds of pics of the beautiful ecosystems there.  Our home base was in Sedona, but we spent time in the Grand Canyon and Phoenix as well.  Phoenix is in the northern limit of the Sonoran desert - known perhaps best for its most famous inhabitant, the Saguaro cactus, Carnegiea gigantea.
 

 

The saguaro is endemic to the Sonoran Desert, which stretches from Phoenix to northern Mexico.  Some occur near the lower Colorado River in California as well.  It's a massively tall tree, reaching heights up to fifty feet.  When you encounter one that tall, you can speculate that it's lived for as long as two hundred years. 

 

The tree's structure is not like a typical woody tree - instead the interior is comprised of wooden rods.  This allows the plant to expand and contract based on the amount of water it is storing.  Roots are shallow and stretch as far as fifty feet away from the trunk - this maximizes the amount of water the plant can capture during the rare rainfall.

 

The saguaro provides habitat to many desert birds, including gila woodpeckers and flickers, as well as desert raptors like elf and screech owls.  In addition to the many bird species found in the Sonoran Desert (350), there are 60 mammals, 20 amphibians, 30 fish and 100 reptiles.  In this little roadside park, I saw dozens of desert cottontails and greater roadrunners.

 

Here a younger saguaro is in the foreground to the right.  Saguaros must reach fourteen to sixteen feet in height (age 75, approximately) before it begins to branch.  

Saguaros are by far, one of the most iconographic American plants.  It's easy to overlook how big they get.  For precisely that reason, here's a shot illustrating its massive size.  For the record, I'm about 5'-3"!!