While parts of El Malpais seemed barren and dry a couple of weeks ago, the arroyos were consistently filled with wildflowers.1 One of the first I saw was a birdbill dayflower, a somewhat strange flower that grows right out of a pod. I was in a bit of a rush to get where I was going that day so, even though I saw more, I took only a few shots, reasoning that I’d get them on the way back.2 That is the way I learned that birdbill dayflowers are open only in the morning: I saw not a single one on the return trip.
Neither of the flowers below is rare but I loved the way they combined. Actually, I’m not even sure the yellow stuff can correctly be called a flower. Its name is four-wing saltbush and it is pale gold and papery most of the year. It blooms bright green around late summer/early fall and was just starting to fade when I took this photo.
The white clusters are spectacle pod, so named because its pods look like glasses, or spectacles. I think they bear a bit of a resemblance to Joe Biden’s aviator glasses.
The lovely iridescent blossoms below are sometimes called Russian thistle. See those cute little thorns protecting them? You really do not want to walk into them, not while the plant is flowering, and especially not after it dries. It’s a non-native, invasive plant which proliferates at this time of the year. Its better-known name is tumbleweed. Yes, really — those tumbleweeds.
I seldom see Rocky Mountain bee plant but there it was, thriving in a couple of El Malpais arroyos.
The flower puff below baffled me at first — I don’t think I’ve seen it before. Turns out it’s snowball sand penstemon. I’m not sure whether the flowers were getting ready to open or if they were on their way out.
A purple aster is nestled in a bed of woolly paperflower below. Purple asters are dotted all over New Mexico at this time of the year; they are some of my all-time favorite wildflowers.
Finally, I found some tiny purple flowers clustered on a stalk, close to the ground, and surrounded by grass. At the time I took the photo, all I could see was that they were purple. When I got home and looked at them on a large monitor, I realized all those blue anthers/stamens reminded me of another tiny flower. Were they some kind of gilia, I wondered?
Bingo! They have numerous common names, including manyflowered gilia.3 You can see several of the flowers they remind me of, Gilia flavocincta, here.
Arroyos can loosely be described as baby canyons, waterways cut into the surrounding land. They generally have water in them only when it’s raining or shortly afterward.
I’ve known for years, decades even, that I need to take photos right when I see them rather than thinking I’ll be able to get them later. Obviously I still slip up from time to time.
Their Latin name is confusing — both Ipomopsis multiflora and Gilia multiflora apply.
What gems! Biden’s aviator glasses, very unique! Thx!
A plethora of Nature's Art work. Thanks for this special treat, Lisa! Wildflowers are at the top of my list of passions.