Peggy's Pod Quiz

Pod 1

Pods 2

Pod 3

Pod 4

All photos (and idea for quiz) from Peggy Wenrick. You can use the leaves and other features to help make the i.d. of these plants in the pea family (Fabaceae). Answers in tomorrow's post.

Looking regal

Photo by Ned Harris 9/5/2012

I nearly clobbered this Regal Horned Lizard with the Gopher (that I use to pick up trash), so cryptic was her coloration. Ned was able to make another fine portrait, though, and no one was harmed.

Biggest Unicorn (plant) Ever!

All Photos by Matt Ball 9/1/2012

We saw this huge Unicorn Plant (Golden Devil's Claw) (Proboscidea althaeifolia) just off the trail that parallels the parking lot on the south east side. The plant is a rough circle of at least 4 ft in diameter! Loads of fruits, too.

Deer back for the Hooker's (Evening Primroses)

Donax to the max (pre-2010)

Text and photos from Mark Hengesbaugh (captions and title from Anne):

Thickets of invasive Arundo donax (Giant Reed) canes infested Sabino Dam and Sabino Creek for decades, crowding out native plants, until volunteers and USFS personnel removed them in a major effort a few years ago.

Same area on 8/14/2012, with only a few soon-to-be-sprayed-with-herbicide stalks

On Aug. 14, 2012, a team of Sabino naturalists surveyed seven plots in the canyon that had been totally dominated by Arundo, and found that 80 species of plants had re-established themselves. A survey in 2010 in those same locations found 55 plant species.
The team: Mark and Jean Hengesbaugh, Fred Heath, Tom 'Grassman' Skinner, Peggy Wenrick, and Anne Green. 

Photo by Tom 'Grassman' Skinner of Mark with deer eating Hooker's 9/3/12 

Text from Mark:

So my buddy Tom Skinner and I were crashing through the underbrush of deepest dark post-Arundo donax Sabino Creek though areas that are now lush with native plants but that until 2009 had been totally dominated by the evil Giant Reed, and we had a Disney-esque moment with a Coues whitetail deer that was so preoccupied scarfing down the abundant Hooker's Evening Primrose that she didn't care about us two-legged intruders.

 Anne says: Go take a peek at the creek!

Back Off Boogaloo

All photos by Matt Ball 9/1/2012

First Gila Monster of September!

And you thought your skin was dry!

Photos by Matt Ball 9/1/2012

This snake skin was at least 6 feet long. In the top photo, you can see the 'tail' end on the upper left and a middle section on the lower right (larger in the photo below); but most of the skin was threaded through and around the plants. The tail piece looked like it had covered a rattle, but I can't be sure.

Climbing Milkweed

Photos by Matt Ball 9/1/2012

I took my Honey-Matt out for a walk in Sabino Canyon, so that he could achieve his lofty goal of getting some recent photos on this blog. We saw this Climbing Milkweed (Funastrum cynanchoides ssp. hartwegii) on the (overgrown) trail that runs parallel to the parking lot on the south side. There's lots of it, too.