Flora / Fauna, Joshua Tree National Park

Favorite thing: Buckhorn Cholla has cylindrical stems which lead to give it the new name of Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa, leaving the name Opuntia to the Cholla with paddles. It has not as many spines as the Teddy Bear Cholla and they are longer and stiffer.

Favorite thing: Teddy Bear cactus (Opuntia Bigelovii, now named (Cylindropuntia Bigelovii) is also called Jumping Cholla. You will very fast understand why the name of Jumping Cholla . As soon as you look at it, there is one that catches you ! No wonder that it is not a popular indoor plant ! Actually, the Jumping Cholla does not jump but it has so many long and soft (soft and prickling all together !) spines that though you feel you are enough away, YOU catch it. If you take care, you will be able to admire it's beautiful yellow flowers.

Favorite thing: Bladderpod, Isomeris arborea is an evergreen shrub, 3-4" height. This perennial plant, native to the Baja and Mohave regions of California, grows from coastal regions up to the elevation of 4000 feet. The plant produces abundant yellow flowers year round, regardless of water. The fruit forms into attractive long capsules, hence the name "Bladderpod". The plant is best left untouched because the scent is generally found unpleasant. It is also the favorite habitat of the Harlequin beetle.

Favorite thing: The Evening primrose or Fragrant Evening Primrose, Oenothera caespitosa produces blooms for a few weeks. The fragrant white flowers, 3 inches in diameter (7.5 cm), open in the evening and last only until the following morning, from mid spring to late summer.

Favorite thing: The Desert Mallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua is a two foot perennial with many one inch orange flowers on a two to three foot spike with gray almost fuzzy foliage. Desert Hollyhock is another name for the flower spikes that can occur most of the year in Joshua Tree. Desert Mallow needs sun and good air flow. It grows throughout the deserts from Baja Calif. to Utah.

Favorite thing: The flowering heads of the desert dandelion are large and showy, pale to bright yellow

The large white flower is Sacred Datura, Datura wrightii (Solanaceae family), the only one I saw in bloom. Its enormous white trumpet flowers have a sweet smell. It blooms at night starting early evening and fading before next noon. It is pollinated by nocturnal visitors, usually sphinx or hawk moths It is found in western Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, southern California, Mexico, and the West Indies and grows within an elevation range between sea level and 6,500 feet. The name Datura, its generic name, is from the Hindu Dhatura (dhat = the eternal essence [of God])..

The tea from Datura is extremely hallucinogenic. The hallucinogenic effects are reported to be stronger than Peyote, Psyillicibin, or LSD. However, Datura is also very toxic and can be deadly. It is apparently Scopolamine that produces the hallucinogenic effects, but the Sacred Datura contains also high concentrations of highly toxic Atropine, Hyoscyamine.

When Datura is used in a Native American ritual, it is always under the guidance of an individual of certain tribal spiritual resolve such as a Medicine person or tribal elder. These experts on the use of the plant know what other plants to add in order to neutralize the harmful effects. They also know how much to administer and when and where to pick the plants, such as age, season, time of year, whether under a full moon or no moon at all. Chemical constituents and levels vary greatly from plant to plant, time of year, and from one area to another just generally, but especially so if the plants are obtained through ritual or from a spot known for having special powers, or sacred grounds. The plants are very toxic, poisonous and lethal, especially if consumed in quantities not monitored by someone versed in their safe administration.

Favorite thing: Desert dandelion grows in coarse desert soils, dry sandy plains, washes and among shrubs in creosote bush scrub, Joshua tree woodland and shadscale scrub to 6000', and occasionally in some of the inner cismontane valleys from San Diego County to Santa Barbara County. It blooms from March to June and when rainfall has been sufficient sometimes covers the desert with yellow.

Favorite thing: While driving on the main road, you might notice that the banks of the highway are sometimes covered by thousands of yellow flowers. They are Desert dandelion or Malacothrix glabrata. Desert dandelion is a few-branched, glabrous annual growing to about 16" tall.