Monday, April 20, 2009

Natural Beauties

I never would have thought the desert could be so beautiful and colorful. Every time we go down to Arizona I am amazed by the variety and color of the plant life there. It is incredible. Here are a few samples from our latest trip.


I believe this is prickly pear in bloom. Look how the tops of the paddles (I don't know what they're really called) are filled with a line of buds. The color is amazing. I didn't photoshop any of the colors on these pictures.




Here's some tiny little red buds on one of the cacti we saw.

This is the whole plant that the previous picture is from. I zoomed in on a leaf just left of center low on the plant.



This beauty was growing with lots of others along the side of the highway.



And here's a delicate yellow one. The needles on this cactus were longer than the other one I called prickly pear. I don't know if it's a variation of prickly pear, or something entirely different. I need to read a book on Arizona plant life.




And here's the whole plant.





A close up of the fuscia blossom of the prickly pear above.






And one of the cutest brother/sister pairs we know - Mark and Beth - Lloyd's niece and nephew, who kept us entertained on our trip.
Later today or tomorrow I'll post pictures from the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, and the aquarium at the Mandalay Bay Hotel on the Strip.






7 comments:

sara said...

nice mum
can't wait to go next week

Greg said...

Pretty pictures, Greg wanted to plant some cacti in our yard but I reminded him we have small children and, well, you know how that goes...

Mickey said...

Gorgeous flowers! Such delicate flowers from such prickly plants!

Debbie Y. said...

I can't get enough of your Arizona cactus photos. Keep them coming. The colors are amazing. You wouldn't think there could be so many different variations of cacti. Read up on them and give us a lesson on cacti.

Michael MacKenzie said...

Remember when Emily stepped on a cactus barefoot when she was three?

JQ said...

Didn't she more like, kick it as she was falling off the coffee table in the bay window?

I'm glad you saw the Donny and Maria billboard on a trip with your own Donny and Marie.

Haf Dozen Reasons....... said...

Beautiful!! I didnt know the desert would be so colorful either.