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Page 6 - Arizona IV The following day I expolred the mountains west of Nogales, driving along the road to Ruby. There are a lot of cool plants in there, although the mountains are not very high.
A rest area on the way down had this really cool Opuntia that looks like O. santa-rita hybridized with something spiny, but I'm not sure exactly what it is. I'm also uncertain whether this is a garden hybrid or a superior collection of a wild plant. Nurseries might sell this as O. macrocentra but it is nothing like the O. macrocentra from New Mexico and Texas.
Throughout this area was a beautiful blue leafed form of Quercus oblongifolia. I would sure like to grow some of these.
A close-up of the leaves. Unfortunately none of the trees had any acorns.
Erythrina flabelliformis was abundant in that area, and seeds on it were just ripe too.
These mountains are also the home of the beautiful Opuntia santa-rita, which grows up to at least 5,200'. It might be worth returning to climb Atascosa Peak and see how high they go. Like most Opuntias it is a variable species, so I collected cuttings from a few different forms.
A smaller but very nice form of Agave palmeri is found in a few areas along the road.
This is one of the lower elevation places one can find Yucca schottii. A nice robust, blue form of it grows here, but it is probably not the cold-hardiest form of this species. Here it is with Erythrina flabelliformis.
Wow - a Y. schottii with huge leaves!
A very attractive Arctostaphylos sp.
Some very nice large, blue forms of Dasylirion wheeleri.
There were also some green Dasylirions in there - I'm not sure if these are still D. wheeleri or what.
I also found some Agave schottii.
And an unusual find, Yucca arizonica, with no seeds of course.
Lastly, the exquisite Agave parviflora, which I drove past on my way in, but found on my way out! I briefly exlored the Huachuca Mountains, but I did not manage to find and collect Agave parryi subsp. huachucensis before it was too dark, so I had to give up on that one.
The moon rising over the Huachuca Mountains.
Echinocereus rigidissimus subsp. rubrispinus at 7,000' in the Huachuca Mountains. I also saw cacti that looked a lot like these in the Pinal Mountains.
Flowering Agave palmeri backlit by the sunset. You can't tell from this pic, but this plant at 7,000' had an 8' wide rosette! I didn't have my collection stuff with me; I guess that means I will have to go back!! My final stop for Arizona was the Chiricahua Mountains. There are many cool plants here including giant Quercus hypoleucoides (without acorns though - can you tell I really wanted this plant?), Agave palmeri and Yucca schottii. According to Gentry, Agave parryi grows up to 9,200' on one of the higher peaks, but I did not have time to hunt for them.
Arbutus arizonica also grows high in the Chiricahuas.
As I drove up the west side of the mountains I saw Yucca schottii in Pinery Canyon. Then it disappears for a while, and then reappears near the top of the mountains. In fact, Yucca schottii grows as high as 8,200' on the road to Rustlers Park! The plants here were almost as robust as the ones west of Nogales, and certainly more robust and attractive than the ones from the Catalina Mountains.
A fabulous Y. schottii at 8,000' in the Chiricahua Mountains. I found one of these with some seeds, but unfortunately I was a bit early and it does not look like the seeds I collected will ripen 'off the vine'.
More Echinocereus high in the Chiricahuas. These plants may be E. fasciculatus or perhaps E. fendleri
There are also some nice 6' wide Agave palmeri here; they go up to about 7,000'. This should be a very cold-hardy form of A. palmeri.
I'm not so sure that some of what I was looking at mightn't have been A. palmeri/A. parryi intergrades. Or maybe the young plants just look different? Hmmm....
Looking back at the Chiricahua Mountains after I drove down the east side. |
