Friday, May 4, 2018

Saguaros in Bloom

Okay, not just saguaros. I mean, saguaros are one of the coolest of spring flowers, but I have a couple of others to share, too, like these pretty orange ones:


But back to those saguaros. Saguaros blossoming is one of the pieces of magic belonging to the Sonoran Desert. The cactus trees start growing little knobs on top of each arm and then each knob blooms into a flower for one day only. That is, each flower only lasts for a day; the series of blooms will last longer. So you'll look over and see a flower and treasure it. 


These are all from the Desert Botanical Garden. These awesome red tongues were growing from octopus arms of cactus beams. The yellow that you see around belongs to the yellow flowers of the palo verde tree. 



Look at those flowery caps on the saguaro in the back; they're natural crowns. 


So pure and simple, no?


And this one. I always pass by this cactus and yet it's so easy to miss these red fruits on it because they, too, only last for a short time. 


The rest of these pictures are from maybe a week later, on a cloudy day. 



A classic pink cactus rose. 


And pale lavender flowers. 


And these, these are wonderful. All the year, you can read the sign about the flowers that attract flies because they smell like rotted meat. But these are no flowers. And then they come--and they look like bruised purple starfish that someone just placed randomly among all of the little cactus fingers. Once more, yellow from fallen palo verde flowers. 


Springtime, springtime, still enjoying spring--though summer is riding fast on its heels.

No comments:

Post a Comment