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Page 5 - Arizona III
As I descended into the lowlands, I found this rather interesting cholla with a metallic purple sheen. I believe it is Opuntia acanthocarpa var. thornberi. My next stop was the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, with their amazing collection of desert plants. I wish I had left more time for that, because now that I appreciate desert plants even more, I could spend all day there! After that I drove towards Globe up through Queen Canyon, which is a cool drive with spectacular scenery and plants.
Agave chrysantha in Queen Canyon.
Agave chrysantha at 6,600' in the Pinal Mountains south of Globe. This is about as high up as they go! I got some seed from these plants, and it looks like they will just be ripe enough to grow.
The view from where I collected those seeds, on the south side of the Pinal Mountains. Then I had the not-so-brilliant idea that I would save some time getting south towards Tucson by driving off the south side of the Pinal Mountains. Soon, however, I found that the road was much worse than my map indicated, being super narrow and steep with lots of large rocks. There was no room to turn around, and I went down some stuff I could not have gotten back up (oooops), so I went on, passing rockslides and overturned trailers in bottoms of canyons. After realizing that I had saved no time at all, I was almost through the worst part when I got the car stuck: I bottomed out on some large ruts. I was about 30 miles from anywhere, so thought I would try everything I could to get out on my own before seeking help. It took 2 and 1/2 hours to get it unstuck, which I eventually accomplished by jacking up the car and putting a lot of rocks under the tires. I got out, but broke the jack. On my way out, I passed a sign that said "Road Closed, No Tresspassing" facing the other direction.
On the plus side, I did see some nice A. chrysantha on that drive, including these plants with spectacular banding!
And, WOW, some monster A. chrysantha up to 7' across!!!! I'll have to rent a hummer and return to this area to get seed from one of these bad boys. There were a number of these whopper plants in Pioneer Basin at about 5,000'. After that little ordeal, I drove into Tucson. Lee, Tucson's tropical plant guru, showed me a park outside Tucson full of beautiful palms like these Phoenix dactylifera.
Who wouldn't want one of these in their yard? (or maybe all of them!)
....especially if it has a cactus growing on it! Our next stop was the Catalina Mountains. Because the mountain range is so close to Tucson, access is relatively easy via a nice paved road. Suguaro cactus grows as high as 4,500' on the south side of the Catalinas, the highest I have seen it anywhere (but it was too far off the road to get a good picture). Thanks to Lee for accompanying me on this trip!
A shot of the very scenic Catalina Highway.
Agave schottii at 6,600' in the Catalinas.
Close-up of Agave schottii, not the most exciting Agave but a nice smaller-scale species for a desert garden.
Here I am standing in front of one of my favorite trees, Quercus hypoleucoides, the silverleaf oak. This tree should be used more in gardens. It is hardy to zone 6 and does splendidly in the Pacific Northwest, since it is evergreen, always very beautiful, and pest free. This picture was taken at about 7,600' in the Catalina Mountains.
The beautiful silvery, evergreen leaves of Q. hypoleucoides. Sadly, no acorns were to be found on any of the trees I looked at in the Catalinas - and I stopped at quite a few!
At the top of the Catalina Mountains sits the Mt. Lemmon Ski Area, the most southerly ski area in North America. With aspen trees and pines, it feels like a little piece of the Rocky Mountains.
The highest Q. hypoleucoides we saw, up at about 8,600': above the base of the ski area (the summit is 9,100').
Arbutus arizonica at about 7,900'. I was too early to get ripe fruit of this species.
Yucca schottii, the mountain yucca, is also found in the Catalinas, up to about 7,600'. Here it is with Q. hypoleucoides and some cool rocks!
The fleshy fruits of Y. schottii. They were just ripe, but what a pain it is to clean them!!
View of the Tucson Valley from the Catalinas.
Quercus arizonica in the Catalinas at 6,500'. It didn't have any acorns.
This oak looks to me like Q. reticulata. Also at 6,500'. While in Tucson, I briefly visited Mesquite Valley Growers and could not resist a 5 gallon Brahea armata. And of course I visited B and B Cactus Nursery again, and had a chance to talk desert plants with Mark quite a bit. I gave him some seeds and they stayed 'open' a bit late for me, which was nice. |
