Driving Through the Desert

The desert is so dry that when it rains, she celebrates. Today I am driving west on Hwy 10. There have been small rains over the last few days. This is the best kind of rain for flowers.

The Navajo describe the rains in one of two ways. Male rains, heavy but short lived rains that can dump lots of water and fill the gullies with fast moving, potentially dangerous water. Female rains are the lighter rains that drop smaller amounts of water over longer periods of time. Female rains soak in, nourishing the plants.

A green under tone is everywhere, carpeting up in to the mountains. The roadside is lined with yellow bushy flowers.  The road departments are really trying to foster plants that feed the pollinators.
Some areas have a pink aura, as several varieties of cacti that have a pink/purple hue mixed with pink fairyduster and  four o'clocks. Intermittent are the orangy flowers that are sticky to the touch. Occasionally there are patches of ground covering flowers: Magenta, yellow, white.

the cacti flowers are harder to enjoy from  your car.  One plant here, one way over there.  but the flowers are more showy to attract their pollinators The ocatillo has a red flower that almost looks like a lipstick on the end of the stalk. Barrel cacti can form a crown.l There is one large white flower on a stalk about 3 feet high that I have yet to photo.

If you are driving thru, be aware of which colors appear in which areas. When you are stopped, look up close at these magnificent bits of beauty.