#288: Bloomin' Beargrass

Along with some other early flowers

I was so excited this past weekend to finally see beargrass blooming in my little corner of the Sandia foothills.¹ It’s the first time I’ve noticed it blooming in this particular area since 2022.

It’s not just that it’s pretty, although that’s part of it. And it’s not just that it’s the host plant for Sandia hairstreaks, although that’s also important. It’s that seeing beargrass bloom again reassures me that Mother Earth’s rhythms haven’t been completely disrupted by Homo sapiens’ many depredations.

The claret cup cactuses are beginning to bloom too.

I saw what must surely be one of the last pasqueflowers for this year, which I included mostly …

… so you can make sense of this next photo, which is a pasqueflower well past its prime. I love the way it looks as if grass is growing right out of the flower and the three still-intact yellow anthers peeking out are super-cute.

Finally, here’s a hardy cultivated flower — sage of some kind — that was determined to survive and thrive despite the several inches of snow we received less than two weeks ago, the day before Easter.

Life is, more often than not, so incredibly tenacious.

1. For those who are local, my stomping grounds include the areas north, east, and south of the Embudo trailhead, both in Albuquerque Open Space and USFS wilderness.