Growing Native with Petey Mesquitey

Doing an episode about desert broom (Baccharis sarothroides) is a November tradition. And, so is singing a verse of an old hymn that I like to fool around with by.changing nouns and pronouns. The melody of the song has had quite a journey from a Dutch folk song of the early 1600s to the early 1800s when Eduard Kremser wrote the hymn using the folk song melody. The hymn is known as the Kremser and starts with the line “We gather together.” I so love the line in the song, “the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.” Hello! What you…

Seeing persimmons in an abandoned orchard at the Chiricahua National Monument pulled up a childhood memory and later I found myself pulling books off shelves and reading about the genus Diospyros and some of the worldwide species. With all my new knowledge I probably could have rattled on for several more minutes in this episode. Luckily for all, I contained myself, but you may want to look up some of the different species of Diospyros and their fascinating histories. The American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, is found from Connecticut, south to Florida, and west to Iowa, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma. It’s found…

When I was making the “dried seed to collect for display” list for you I should have said “screwbean mesquite beans”, not “seed,” but the twisty twirly clusters of beans that hold the seed. You probably already have those on a shelf, right? Also, can you believe I forgot wild cotton, Gossypium thurberi? Talk about cool pods! Well, to be continued. Hey, the photos are mine. That is some dry Dysphania graveolens that my partner, lover, significant other, Marian put in a gourd vase. I love the pine needle collar she wove around the top of that gourd.

Out in the borderlands near me I find mariola (Parthenium incanum) on the gravelly slopes and plains of the Desert Grassland and Chihuahuan Desert. I love finding it mixed in with so other desert plant species. In the photos below you can see evidence of that kind of fun mixture…a plant geek’s delight! Hey, if you’re out cruising the Sulphur Springs Valley in the winter you’re gonna find cranes out in fields or in the sky during the morning and in the afternoon, but listen, between eleven-ish and two-ish they’re back hanging out at their roosting spots. The White Water…

The photos are mine of Verbesina encelioides. Although it’s quite pretty, “a common weed of roadsides and waste places.”* *Kearney and Peebles, Arizona Flora

This episode is about a fall blooming plant called Ageratina herbacea. Ageratina means a small or smaller Ageratum… another beautiful blooming plant….herbacea means herbaceous. Duh. It’s probably just me, but I think ageratina makes for a nice common name. How about fragrant ageratina? Oh yeah. The photos are mine.

I was looking though some old notes of episodes and realized that I have talked about coral bells (Heuchera sanguinea) many times over the years. Like a favorite trail or dirt road I keep coming back to it. There are six species of Heuchera found in Arizona and they’re among the 40 to 50 species found in North America, not to mention numerous cultivars. The photos are mine and taken along the trail that my partner, lover and significant other and I keep coming back to.