May 18, 2016
Over my last three day weekend visiting Bill we took Sasha for a walk on the local Bunting Trail which was filled with blooms. Spring comes earlier at this lower elevation than the North Rim along with some different flowers blooming.
The Primrose dotted the orange landscape with white, and pink as the blooms fade.
The Bunting Trail follows close to a dry wash, unless there’s been rain and then the trail is too sloppy to walk. Yet all the moisture helps bring out the flowers. And also the Tamarisk which is an invasive species found all over the Southwest.
The bright red Skyrocket really stands out against the rather gray-greens of the desert vegetation. I’ll see this blooming during the summer on the North Rim. Notice the tiny mushrooms at the base of the Skyrocket.
Some of the flowers are really tiny like the Stemless Daisy and Spike Broomrape which were no more than three inches tall.
Other blooms like the Broadleaf Yucca reach for the sky. If you ever find yourself thirsty along a desert trail the yucca flower petals are full of moisture and good to munch on.
Although you must be careful of spines, the flowers on the Prickly Pear and Beavertail cactus are also edible as is the delicious sweet fruit they produce late in the summer. You might be able to see a tiny bee in the yellow flower gathering pollen.
I’m still learning the names of many of these low elevation desert flowers and think this is some kind of Wallflower. Feel free to chime in if I’m wrong.
One of these days we’ll actually hike up into the cliffs where there are petroglyphs. Of course Bill has been there before but at my lollygag speed it could take all day.
Due to a weak, or non-existant, signal I’m loading smaller images and wondering if the page loads faster.
Beautiful photos. I always load small photos (800pixels) Our speed cannot cope with anything larger.
Love all the colours of the wild flowers. Still strikes being a problem here!! Keep well Diane
Guess I’ll be sticking with smaller photos. Still holding thumbs.
It is amazing to me how much color a desert can get if it has some moisture.
So lovely to see blooms in the desert.
Really great flower pictures. Glad Bill can bring you to places with new things to learn. I’m in a good signal area so everything loads fine just now.
Thanks Sherry. I so love to see environments in all the seasons. I may have solved my signal problem.
Looks like a fun trail. I miss all the spring and summer SW flowers.
Now I can look forward to the blooms on the North Rim.
I didn’t know those cactus flowers were edible. Would make for a colorful salad!
Not much flavor but very colorful.
Your post did load rapidly so we’ll put up with small photos for the summer:) But I do miss the larger photos. Thanks for the names and info on the flowers. Nice to know about the ones that are edible. One never knows when they will be in need:)
Seems the booster is working so may be back to larger photos next week. I like knowing what’s edible along the trail.
A very nice variety of blooming flowers, and always good to know what is edible in your native environment!
When I learn new flowers and plants I try to also learn what is edible. Ya’ just never know.