OK I know you are wondering 'what in the world is that'. This is a Century plant it is in the Yucca plant family
. It lives just to put all of its starch and sugarinto growing this staff. It grows several inches a day. And then it will die. But look at these pods and the close up of the flowers it produces. Amazing isn't it!
This is the tallest saguaro cactus we have seen we estimated it to be around at least 50 feet tall. Phil is standing close to it. He would not get any closer to it due to the thorney tree under the cactus. No there is no trickery in this picture, number 1 I don't know how to do it.The arms on the cactus just above Phils head are bending downward. That is caused by them being frozen way back when. So the end of the arms are now bending back upward. The more it rains the bigger around these cactus will get.
That thing was HUGE.
This tree is loaded with Misletoe. Dosen't do the tree any good because it is a parasite and eventually will turn the tree black and ugly
This is a Joshua Tree it is also in the Yucca plant family. We could not figure out what it was at first.
It has a trunk like a tree, it has bark like a tree, and then it goes crazy, with cactus like features.
The Joshua Tree can live to be over 1000 years old.
To answer a question we have gotten about Jake and Elroy, in an earlier blog. We got lost, we do that alot even with a GPS, and we were turning around in a parking lot. Well out behind a bar we saw Jake and Elroy sitting outside in the sun. So I told Phil we had to get a picture.
We are leaving Arizona Thursday March 25 and taking a week to get back to Wichita, unless I can hurry Phil some. We are anixious to see what retirement life is really like because here I feel like I'm on vacation. Well Phil isn't near as excited as I am to get home. It snowed 5-7 inches Saturday, also first day of spring, in Wichita and here it is 82. WOW (also Happy Birthday to Ivy, she got 12" of hair cut off for Locks of Love) she is just one of the reasons we are coming home now for.
2 comments:
Boy, I love the desert blogs, and the flora lesson. You took beautiful pictures, and I can only imagine what all these look like in person. Tell Phil the weather's not so bad. We only got about 1 -2 inches on Fri - Sat, and by Sunday it was all gone. Today we are up to about 65, so it is nice again here. By the time you get home, it will probably be full blown summer! :) Patty
WOW!!! mom you have become an awesome photographer! That Century plant is cool, is that it's yucca leaves at the bottom? the stem looks rubbery and the picture of the flower is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! I can't even fatham how big that cacti (haha- sounds funny) is! Maybe we won't let you come back you just have to drive around the country taking nature photos for us.
Michelle
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