Category: Santa Catalina Mountains

Mesquite Flowers and Seeds

desert survival

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Mesquite is the Sonoran Desert smell carried by distant rain, omnipresent and humble, a survivor with tap root extending 190 feet down to draw on the water table.

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Prosopis is the scientific name for about 40 species of leguminous trees. Present in North America since the Pliocene era, mesquite wood has been dated to 1300 BC.

I found this flowering mesquite bush in Finger Rock Canyon of the Catalina Mountains outside Tucson, Arizona.

They are thought to have evolved with megafauna in the New World. The loss of North American megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene era gave way to one theory of how the Prosopis spp. were able to survive.

One theory is that the loss of the megafauna allowed Prosopis spp. to use their fruit pods to attract other organisms to spread their seeds; then, with the introduction of livestock, they were able to spread into grasslands.

The plentiful legumes that develop from these flowers are edible when cooked. The shape and color of the seeds can be understood from this empty seed pod that happens to lie near a tarantula burrow.

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References:
“Mesquite,” Wikipedia

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Cottonwood Shade in Pima Canyon

The cottonwood’s deep roots draw water from a mountain stream.

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Looking back down Pima Canyon on a spring morning plenty of green under the unrelenting sun.

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A large Fremont’s Cottonwood Offers shade and protection along the Pima Canyon Trail.

In the shade, a grapevine, offers a vain promise of grapes.

The cottonwood’s deep roots draw water from a mountain stream.

Native Americans in the Western United States and Mexico used parts of Frémont’s cottonwood variously for a medicine, in basket weaving, for tool making, and for musical instruments. The inner bark of Frémont’s cottonwood contains vitamin C and was chewed as an antiscorbutic – treatment for vitamin C deficiency. The bark and leaves could be used to make poultices to reduce inflammation or to treat wounds.

The Pima people of southern Arizona and northern Mexico lived along Sonoran Desert watercourses and used twigs from the tree in the fine and intricate baskets they wove. The Cahuilla people of southern California used the tree’s wood for tool making, the Pueblo peoples for drums, and the Lower Colorado River Quechan people in ritual cremations. The Hopi of Northeastern Arizona carve the root of the cottonwood to create kachina dolls.

Reference: Wikipedia “Fremont’s Cottonwood.”

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills

Cactus Blossoms in Pima Canyon

Delicate buds develop into a flower, and then, into a cactus tuna

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A set of photographs of buds and blossoms of the Prickly Pear Cactus taken in Pima Canyon of the Pusch Ridge Wilderness of the Catalina Mountains.

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Eight New  Blossoms

Here are 8 flower bud growing from one cladode (pad).  There is a 9th bud on a second cladode.  What is interesting about these pads are the needle shadows.  Although thin, each provides some protection from the sun.

Cactus Closeup

This delicate bud will develop into a flower and, then, into a cactus fruit (in spanish, tuna).  The fruit retains those tiny spines, called glochids, which detach on the smallest contact.  The pads are also covered with them.

Prickly pears are known for growing into thickets.  The Cuban government created a “cactus curtain” of prickly pears around the Guantanamo naval base in the 1960’s, to prevent Cubans from escaping to refuge in the United States.

Cactus Flowers

Look closely at the anthers of these flowers.  Each curls over when touched, depositing its pollen.  The habit of prickly pears to grow together in thickets mean there are clusters of blossoms in springtime.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills

Flowering Saguaros in Finger Rock Canyon

Some Fallen, Some Blessed

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My visit to Finger Rock Canyon of the Santa Catalina Mountains filled two mornings.  On the first morning, the subject was the lower canyon as morning light filtered over the eastern ridge.

Early morning to the north / northwest looking over a 20-foot fallen Saguaro Cactus (Carnegiea gigantean), toward lower ridges of the Santa Catalina Mountains.  The saguaro is among a stand of healthy fellows, some with new growth and flowers on the tips of arms and main columns. This giant must have grown over rock through 60 years.  It was brought down when the roots weakened.  Specimens that are more reliably rooted can live to 200 years.

A clump of brittlebush shrub (Encelia farinosa) grows from the same rock.

Pima Canyon is the next over, behind that near ridge which provides similar shade.  Unlike Finger Rock Canyon, the Pima Canyon trail follows the western cliff and loses the shade much sooner.  During our three-week trip, my wife, Pam, and I visited Pima in our first week.

These photos were taken between 6:20 and 7:00 am.

Along the trail I noticed a multitude of buds on the tip of selected saguaro arms.  In a previous blog, there’s a photo of this same saguaro in the shade.  The following series captures the one blossoming top just as the sun passes over the eastern, shadowing, ridge.

The same saguaro, two minutes later…….

Here is a portion of the saguaro forest, around 7 am with the lower canyon filled with light.  There are a few foothill homes with west and southwest Tucson.  The Tucson Mountains are in the distance.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills

Saguaro Flowers in Finger Rock Canyon

April Perfection

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These photographs are a continuation of blogs from two days’ exploration of Finger Rock Canyon of the Santa Catalina Mountains, southern Arizona. Here we explore the nature of the Saguaro blossom.

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Saguaro flowers start as buds on the tip of the cactus body or arm. The specimen in the photograph below, growing in the yard of a foothills home on the border of federal land, is over 30 feet tall and, at the end of April 2011, buds are sprouting from every tip.  Look closely for opening buds and full saguaro blossoms.

Flower buds grow only from some tips and around the center, along the sides, not from the point at the very end of the tip, from which the limb grows.

These buds first appeared mid-April and are here shown in the latter stages of maturity, prior to opening.  Sometimes, the base of an arm weakens and the arm lowers close to the ground while remaining healthy.  While descending the canyon I noticed this had happened to the arm of a particularly large specimen, an arm in full flower.  This and the following photographs are from that arm.

I have read that each flower opens in the cool of the night and lasts only until the following afternoon.  Here is a fully blossomed flower with a pair of opening buds.

And more, from a different view of the same arm.

A saguaro flower in full bloom, having opened the previous night. This flower will last a single day. It will wilt in the heat of a single afternoon and close. In this brief time, flying animals will pollinate it. You can see numerous honey bees on the flowers, in a previous blog, “Saguaro Flowers in Finger Rock Canyon.”

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills

Finger Rock Canyon Morning

April Perfection

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The perfection of April in Tucson is nowhere better than mornings spent in Finger Rock Canyon of the Catalina Mountains.  Oriented on a north/south axis, the eastern cliffs shed a long shadow well past 9:30 am. For early risers such as me, this means no hat and cool hiking to the canyon head: the trail hugs the eastern cliffs.

These three shots were taken 5:30 – 6:00 am mountain time (Arizona does not follow daylight savings time except on the Navajo Reservation). 

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Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills

Afterglow, Saguaro National Park

The Flag Forms

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Here is a postscript for my retrospective diary of the day I created my print “Ocotillo Sunset.” You can visit “Ocotillo Sunset” in my Online Gallery by clicking on any photograph .

In near total darkness, the last sunlight only enough for the far western sky, these are the last shots of this series.

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Afterglow I

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Afterglow II

The final result of the day’s work, “Ocotillo Sunset.”

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Ocotillo Sunset — flag on ocotillo cane poles
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Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Ocotillo Sunset from Saguaro National Park, a diary Part 7

The Flag Forms

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The penultimate posting of my retrospective diary of the day I created my print “Octillo Sunset.” You can see a large version of “Ocotillo Sunset” by clicking on any of my blog photographs.

The Flag in Formation and Realization

Then, for reasons I can only speculate about, a spectacular shape came together in the clouds. In the following photograph I have yet to recognize, to see, this cloud sculpture. Do you see part of “Ocotillo Sunset” coming into shape? As far as I remember, at the time I had only a dim realization of what was forming in my view finder and in front of me.

The Flag Forms

Then, I changed camera orientation and shifted the view a few degrees to the left and there it was: a coherent shape of something. Here it is in full, untethered.

Unanchored, a Flag or Ship

The final result of the day’s work, “Ocotillo Sunset.”

Ocotillo Sunset — flag on ocotillo cane poles
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Ocotillo Sunset from Saguaro National Park, a diary Part 6

Shooting As The World Turns

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This is a retrospective diary of the day I created my print “Ocotillo Sunset.” You can see a large version of “Ocotillo Sunset” by clicking on any of my blog photographs.

Shooting as the World Turns

In Part 5, we enter the final phase of this day’s work with darkening of the land while in the sky sunlight reflects off high clouds. The length of this moment when twilight is over, just before night falls, varies with latitude and time of year. Near the poles (high latitude) this light can last for days while here, at about 32 degrees north, it is less than 15 minutes. As I wrote in Part 4, after this light, the desert is absolutely dark. This is why I chose to set up by the roadside.

In the following two photographs I experimented with camera placement and foreground elements. Starting in Part 4 I became aware of Ocotillo branches, using them for the effect of reaching for and, here, anchoring the clouds.

Saguaro Sunset II

Lead Around by an Ocotillo

These earth-bound Ocotillo branches lead me to the darkened earth. How much to include in the shot? I searched for a balance between the vastness and complete blackness and needed a point of interest. Time was running out.

Saguaro Sunset III

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Ocotillo Sunset from Saguaro National Park, a diary Part 5

High Altitude Clouds

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This is a retrospective diary of the day I created my print “Ocotillo Sunset.” 

Choices of the Evening

The next few blogs are a set of photographs from the developing sunset of that November evening. Once set up, my practice is to stay in place until there is nothing left of capture; all the while evaluating the results and adapting the camera settings, framing and lenses to the environment.

Happening in the Twilight

By this point, twilight is over and only the sky is lit. According to file metadata posted at capture, thirteen minutes passed from the following photograph till the last. I mounted my camera on a simple tripod, purchased from a mall chain store, with the standard controls. I prefer to specify ISO and set it at 160 (the lowest value) throughout. The sky was calm and, with the tripod, I used the aperture setting with higher values. This was f13 / 1/60.

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The clouds are forming up.  I need some foreground.  Vastness on vastness is a bit much. Those are the Tucson Mountains in the distance. If you look closely, on the right the Tucson Mountains dip down, revealing Kitt Peak, at least 60 miles distant. It is the defined peak on the left of that range. In early morning light, the Mayall 4 meter telescope building gleams white on that point.

The sun illuminates different levels of clouds as the earth turns toward night. These are altostratus cloud types, at 6,500 to 20,000 feet, formed by strong winds.

The elements of my print “Ocotillo Sunset” are coming together.  Do you recognize them from this image of my print?

FF6H3057_OctilloSunset_Copyright4Site

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Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved