Sonoran Desert in Bloom
Posted by Belle on 18 Apr 2007 at 05:56 pm | Tagged as: desert, plant
My husband and I went to Phoenix today to do some important errands and to return my daughter’s prom dress to the mall. (See update on prom dress on the post below titled, “It is Prom Night.” On the way over, I noticed that the desert was starting to show some colors. I came prepared for the photo shoot. I asked my husband to pull over on the side of the freeway so I could take pictures of the Sonoran desert. Sonoran desert, by the way, was barricaded with barbed wire to protect the cattle from reaching the highway. Soon, we saw ourselves crawling under the barbed wire. Here are some pictures that my husband and I took.
Note: All cacti have thorns, even the thornless prickly pear has invisible thorns, which are hard to see by the naked eye. Once it gets into your skin, it can be uncomfortable and it is awful hard to remove. My husband went on a quail hunting one day and inadvertently got close to Cholla cactus. He couldn’t remove the thorns and he was hurting so he ended up throwing away the good camouflage hunting pants. So, stay away from those as much as possible.
Buckhorn Cactus
Ocotillo cactus
Prickly Pear Cactus
Baby Barrel Cactus
Cholla Cactus
Dead Saguaro
Hedgehog Cactus
Barrel Cactus
Saguaro Cactus
awesome outback hehehe
hehehe Belle the last picture looks like a cactus giving a dirty finger..crazy thought hehe
Anyway I never thought that they’re dangerous but great shots
wow, had no idea you’re quite the cactus expert.
Great photos of cacti … in their natural habitat.
Quail hunting. Interesting. So, did you have quails for dinner? Ang sarap ah. It’s hard to find those here these days, though maraming quail eggs.
Reminds me of a long ago day my son wished aloud he’d have a while roast chicken for himself. I said ok, that can be arranged — and I bought a kilo of quails the following week.
Hi Ate Belle,
I enjoyed your beautiful photos of cacti. Your landscape is so different from what I see here. It’s amazing how these plants survive without much water.
Thanks for sharing these lovely cacti photos. I appreciate the nice information about them too and learned something new today.
Take care!
Belle, those are great pics! The ones that can be seen on movies and TV. Would love to see those cacti..maybe someday we will be able to visit Arizona.
Hi belle
I love the one with the pink bloom… lovely!
lolz at verns…
Belle, I checked your site this morning and the photos didn’t appear. What happened? I like your cacti posts. When i was a child, my mom had a collection of those small cacti. They all died. Because I watered them everyday. Hahaha. From then on till now, I can’t really grow plants. Parang isinumpa when it comes to gardening. But I like plants and flowers so much.
@UTOY, thanks for visiting my site.
@Verns, hahahahaha! i told my husband about what you said, he thought it was funny. it does look like giving a finger. now, question for you, what does the barrel cactus remind you of? nakatirik na….kandila??
@wil, i have been living in AZ for the last 10 years and have been all over the desert. i have been poked by its thorns several times and it hurt!
@anna, sometimes we had quails for dinner but most of the time, he came home emptyhanded. quails moved away fast before he could shoot.
@KK, thanks. cacti store water in their tissues so they can live for years without water.
@julie, when my checked my blog last night, morning, your time, 80% of my photos disappeared and reappeared the following the day. i didn’t have a slightest idea. it could be that i was being prompted to upgrade my site to paid blog or i could be wrong. julie, cacti don’t like a lot of water and they like to be in the desert. i love gardening and have a thumb for it.
hi rach, thanks and you are welcome. just so you know that you can make salsa out of the pods of the prickly pear and you can make wine and jelly out of the fruits of a prickly pear and saguaro. i have never tried it though but hispanic people do.
@mominmiami, thanks. there are a lot of things to see in AZ. we have the beautiful deep grand canyon, the picturesque rocks in Sedona, and the sonoran desert.
@pining, that is my favorite, too. i spotted it when we were about to head back to our car. hehehe…that is what i like about Verns…so funny!
bwahahahaha yeah nakatirik na…kandila!! lol
hahahha…we are in the same vein verns.
Hi, Belle!
I also love cacti! I’m planning to actually make a cacti collection in my mini garden.
Isn’t it nice to commune with nature once in a while!
hi rhodes, good luck on your plan to make a cacti collection. it sounds like a fun hobby.
and you had to crawl through barbed wires just to get those wonderful pictures and share them with us. thanks, Belle!
So the desert blooms din pala. I didn’t know that cacti also come in different colours. They look dangerous, alright, but there’s also a certain beauty in them, no?