More Sonoran Desert April flowers

With my schedule clearing us I have had a lot more time to hike the desert lately.  Fortunately we have had very nice temperatures for the past several weeks.  One of my more recent trips was to Cottonwood Creek just west of Lake Pleasant NW of Phoenix.  Similar to my previous post perennials are in full bloom.  Creosote, Buckhorn Cholla, Teddy Bear Cholla, Strawberry Hedgehog, and Paper Flower are in full bloom.  I also found an extremely rare Buckhorn Cholla with red flowers.  I have literally walked past tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Buckhorn Chollas in bloom over the years and have only come across one red flowering plant.

Anyway, here are some of the flowers in bloom along Cottonwood Creek.

Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus

Teddy Bear Cholla

Paper Flower

The typical yellow colored Buckhorn Cholla flower.

A rare red Buckhorn Cholla flower.  Maybe one in a million or more.

April flowers in the Sonoran Desert

Teddy Bear Cholla (Cylindopuntia bigelovii) in bloom in the desert right now.  Oddly, this cactus produces no viable seeds despite flowering and only reproduces asexually by rooting broken cactus joints.

April showers bring May flowers!  Right?  Well not in the Sonoran Desert.  Its more along the lines of May drought kills April flowers.  But from March through mid April or so we can have a whole host of flowers depending on how much rain we received in the winter months before.  Even in years with relatively little winter rainfall the perennial plants will still normally produce flowers.  This winter we had several small rainfall events that amounted to only 2.75 inches which is slightly over half of our "normal" 4.5 inches of winter rainfall.  But so called normal rainfall is sort of an enigma in the desert...  Despite the lack of rain we still have had quite a showing of April perennial plant flowers. 

Currently in bloom are several species of cacti: Prickly Pears (Opuntia sp.), Staghorn Cholla (Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa), Teddy Bear Cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii), and Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus englemanii).  I am sure other species of cacti are also in bloom currently in other locations but I haven't visited them lately.

Staghorn Cholla (Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa)

Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus englemanii)

Prickly Pear (Opuntia sp.)

Other more bush like plants are also in bloom right now: Mesquite (Prosobis sp.), Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata), Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens), and the Blue Palo Verde (Parkinsonia florida).

Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens)

Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens)

Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata)

Velvet Mesquite (Prosobis velutina)

Velvet Mesquite (Prosobis velutina)

In the next few weeks these flowers will die off with the increasing heat and begin to produce an abundance of seed and seed pods.  Over the next several weeks Foothills Palo Verde (Parkinsonia microphylla), Iron wood (Olneya tesota), Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea), and Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus sp.) will begin to flower during the Sonoran Deserts driest time of year.

Horseradish plant from the produce section

Horseradish plant started from a section of horseradish root I purchased last fall in the grocery store. 

One of my favorite ways of obtaining and growing plants starts in the produce section of the grocery store.  Here there are an abundance of seeds and roots from the produce that is for sale that can be grown in the garden or inside.  I have mentioned obtaining fresh ginger root from the grocery store and growing it, but this last fall I also did it with a section of horseradish root.  I simply purchased a healthy looking section of root and then made sure it was dried out well by letting it sit on a counter for several days.  After that I simply planted it in the ground about three inches deep and waited to see what happened. I planted the root mid-October, it took a few weeks before any sprouts appeared, and the leaves died back after our winter frosts.  About March however the plant started growing like crazy!  From what I have read horseradish can become an invasive weed in the garden in more temperate climates but in Phoenix the summer heat should make it die back.  So my plan is to let it grow until the heat kills the leaves, then I will see if there are any roots to dig up.

Section of horseradish root similar to what I planted in October.

Starting plants from materials found in the grocery store produce section can be quite exciting.  You never know quite what you are going to get.  You also have access to a lot of different plants that normally are not available in seed catalogs or garden stores.  Unfortunately, growing grocery produce is experimental and some of your attempts will fail, but that's the way science goes.  We are still trying to successfully germinate and grow coconuts from the grocery store.  We are currently on our second coconut attempt and if we don't succeed we will try again!