Our Window on Nature

. . . exploring the world around us

Archive for the 'Flowers' Category

Deadly Datura

Posted: Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 @ 11:35 am in Flowers | Comments Off

One of the Southwest’s most attractive plants, the Sacred Datura, is also one of its most deadly. Every now and then newspapers carry the grisly story of someone who, after experimenting with a species of Datura, wanders for days through desert delusions until brought down by the searing heat. While seeking heavenly visions, the user [...]

The Name Game

Posted: Friday, March 9th, 2007 @ 1:04 pm in Flowers | Comments Off

Botanists rely on Latin names for plants to avoid confusion, since the flora they work with contains thousands of species, some of them common to many different lands. But it also strips away most of the romance. Would you be as interested in the appearance of a Houstonia caerulea as you might be about seeing [...]

Desert Wildflowers

Posted: Wednesday, March 1st, 2006 @ 2:46 pm in Flowers | Comments Off

Early rains came to the desert again this year, and with any luck we’ll meet April in the midst of fields of wildflowers. Wildflowers on the desert? A most unlikely place. Too many RVers experience the desert only during the heat of summer. They seek to escape, hurrying through on their way to somewhere cooler. [...]

 
##performancing