GOING FOR THE GOLD
Ed and I were planning our weekly nature hike. It is much cooler in Tucson now that October is almost over, which would suggest a hike in the valley, but we wanted to take one last look at the golden fall colors in Marshall Gulch. We feared that we were too late.

Just before arriving in Summerhaven we noticed a group of four or five wild turkeys, one spreading its gorgeous tail feathers. We were driving at the time and there was no chance to catch a picture of this healthy-looking group.

Wild Turkeys from a different trip up the mountain

We parked in the Gulch, and I suggested to Ed that we might see as many as four species in flower. He thought I was being terribly optimistic. After all, this was the last day in October, and temperatures in the mountain drop below freezing at night this time of the year. Four weeks ago, October 2, the fall colors were just getting started in the Gulch and we counted 37 wildflower species in bloom. Today the trees were mostly bare, though we did find many beauties, like the one in this photograph.

Big Tooth Maple

Within the first ten yards on the trail we saw our first flower, Horseweed (Conyza canadensis). Not long after that Bitter Dock (Rumex obtusifolius) with its nearly invisible flowers. For a long while we saw nothing. As we neared our turning-around point, we spotted a rather small paintbrush (Castilleja sp.), and then three healthy looking Arizona fleabanes (Erigeron arizonicus). We had achieved our goal, and now it was time to retrace our steps back to the car.

But first we had a very pleasant encounter with Jasmine, the beautiful donkey shown in this picture, with her friend Leigh Anne who pointed out that just a few days ago a heavy wind storm swept through and tore many of the leaves off of the maple trees.

Soon after that we met up with a group of three people, and learned that they were Philip, Ellen and Marie Claude. After an enjoyable conversation, we turned to leave them and almost immediately saw our first “return” flower, a rather scruffy looking Richardson’s geranium (Geranium richardsonii). We announced the finding to our trio of new friends. When Ellen came over to look she asked: “Is it that yellow flower?”  The geranium was white. We looked down, and sure enough there was a flower we hadn’t seen, a MacDougal’s groundsel (Senecio eremophilus). As we continued down the trail Ed and I, almost at the same moment, wondered if this might be one of those hikes where we see more flowers on the return journey than on the outward one. Little did we know. By the time we reached the parking lot we had seen 13 new species, for a grand total of 17 in all. We had seen more than three times as many flowers on the second half of the hike as on the first! And some of them, like the Palmer’s lupine, were in splendid condition.
What a wonderful time we had feasting our eyes on the remains of the fall colors, catching glimpses of all those wildflowers, and enjoying the company of such interesting people on the trail. We found our gold.

One of the most interesting displays in the South Rim of Grand Canyon extends for over a mile along the rim walk There is a sign introducing the path labeled “Two billion years of Grand Canyon History” with an invitation to see and touch some of the rocks.

One morning I walked the path to Yavapai Point to see the sunrise, and then walked back in the growing beauty of the day. I especially enjoyed seeing samples of the different rock layers. At the 340 million year old mark there is this piece of Redwall limestone. Years ago I learned that the rocks in the red wall are not red but white. The red color comes from thousands of years of iron oxide (rust), washing over the surface. Even so it was rather startling to see how white the “red” wall limestone really  is.

Yesterday I had an exciting conference with Jim Verrier. He has invited me to work with him on a book of the grasses of southern Arizona. I brought samples collected a week ago, and he was able to help me put names to grasses that a short time ago were strangers to me. Today I went up to an area called Molino Canyon Vista, just about 5 miles up the Catalina highway. How different it is to walk among the grasses being able to recognize different species and even call them by name. It was a beautiful fall day, as you can see from this picture of an Arizona Sycamore.

One of my last finds turned out to be a grass introduced from South Africa, Natal grass (Melinis repens). This is one I have noticed for many years, since its pink and white flowering heads are so decorative and can be seen for several miles along the highway. One picture shows it all white. The close-up reveals the incredible beauty of the pink and white hairs and the little yellow flowers. Too bad it is an invasive plant. It is really quite lovely.

Since I decided to photograph grasses I have made several trips up the mountains. Most of the species have finished blooming for the year and are loaded with seeds. I love seeing the many forms that these grasses take. I can see it is going to be quite a challenge getting to know them all.

In my growing collection of plant books, there were none for the grasses, so I bought three to start to learn them. One was first published in 1899, another in 1935 and the third in 1979, so there may be some problems in name changes. All three have line drawings which are quite beautiful, but are not able to show the colors of the flowers, and the fine details of their fruits.

I realized that a better way of learning grasses is to see the plants themselves. It dawned on me that there is a huge collection of grasses, mounted and labeled at the University of Arizona Herbarium. So I took my camera and set off for the Campus. In the building that houses the herbarium I met many of my botanical friends and they helped me find the grasses I was looking for. In about four hours I photographed over 100 of them. A few days later I went to the collection put together by Joan Tedford at the Palisades ranger station in the Catalina Mountains, and photographed that collection (over 70 species). I am beginning to have a way of identifying the grasses I have been seeing and photographing. By the time Spring comes around I will be better equipped to name the different species as they come into bloom.

In my hikes I have found a few species in flower. It turns out that the showiest ones happen to be problem grasses that are crowding out the native species in certain areas. On one trip I found two of them side by side, both of which are a real problem in this part of the world. It turns out that they are related. (Pennisetum ciliare or Bufflegrass, and Pennisetum setaceum or Fountain Grass). You can see their similarities in these pictures. I found another non-native grass in beautiful bloom. It is not as much of a problem, and is an important food crop, Sorghum halpense or Johnsongrass.

Bufflegrass and Fountain grass

Johnsongrass flowers

I think I’m falling in love. No, not with Louise – well, yes, I did that in 1954. I mean I have a new love. I think I am in love with grasses.

For some reason I have been ignoring grasses these last 14 years. In that time I have learned to identify about 500 different wildflower species, and every tree species in these southern Arizona mountains, but grasses were a great, deep mystery. It seemed impossible for anyone to learn them. Because I hadn’t really looked at them, they looked all the same to me. And then my friend Jim suggested that I start photographing grasses. He would help with identification. Immediately I knew that this was going to be my next project.

I learned that there are fewer than 200 grass species in the Catalina mountains. (In one list I have there are fewer than 100). Surely I could get to know the grasses. I found one hiking with Ed in Turkey Run last week, and then went to Molino Basin a few days ago and found lots more. At this point I am not able to put names to any of them.

Last evening my wife and I decided to abandon the idiot box and go for a stroll in Molino Basin.
We left our house at 5pm.  We arrived at the parking lot at about 5:20. This was a half hour before sunset, but the sun was already obscured by the hill to the west, so we could walk without hats or sun screen. It was a beautiful evening, clear, light breeze, perfect temperature. We walked up the paved camp road – less than a mile. The roadside was lush with grasses. When we turned around I decided to see how many distinct grass forms I could see on the way back to the car. I was struck by the great variety and stunning beauty of the fruiting heads of these grasses. I was also struck by how easy they were to tell apart. I realize that this will not always be the case, but in the space of less than a half an hour I figured I had seen over thirty different species.

At one point Louise stopped me to point out a line of ants scurrying across the road carrying white bundles of some sort. . With my binoculars I could see that many of them were carrying grass seeds, like the beautiful one in this photograph.

And here is one of the grasses we found yesterday. The first picture shows a branch. The second moves in closer, and the third closer still.

There was heavy wind in the forecast today in southern Arizona so Ed encouraged me to bring a jacket. How right he was. We walked up Turkey Run, having rejected the idea of Oracle Ridge where the wind would have blown us off the mountain. Even in the deep woods it was very windy and there was a fall chill in the air. We did not see many wildflowers, about half as many as last week (14 compared to 37). We did see this beautiful Richardson’s geranium with two blooms on a single plant one white and the other deep pink. In this species the color can be blue, white or pink.

It turned out that the big attraction on this walk was not to be wildflowers but fall colors and clouds.

We arrived at our snack point. I sat on a log. Ed moved up the slope to look at a stand of trees including some Big Tooth Maple in full color. He stood there for the longest time, mesmerized by the view.

Eventually I joined him and saw what had held him spellbound. We stood there, looking up the hill with a stand of trees, many in their fall colors. Above the trees wonderful formations of clouds were moving swiftly up and over our heads. It felt as if the clouds were holding still and the world had suddenly accelerated its rotation.

This picture gives you some idea of the view of the trees and one of the many cloud forms racing above them.

Ed and I were on the return leg of our hike in Marshall Gulch in the Catalina Mountains today. We came across some flowers we had not seen on the outward journey, especially the beautiful blue Mountain Lobelia. 

I said: “Will wonders never cease?” and Ed replied: “That exact phrase has been running through my head for the last ten minutes.” I suggested that he might have planted it in my mind by some mental transference. At least it showed how much we were sharing a sense of happiness and wonder.

When we set out on the hike we expected that now, early in October, we might see some of the fall colors for which this part of the mountain is famous. We did not expect to see many flowers, not at 8000 feet. It proved to be the reverse. The fall colors were just barely starting. See this spray of big-tooth maple leaves.

And there were lots of flowers. We counted 25 on the outward journey and 12 more on the return. (See the list below)

At our turn-around point Ed noticed a plant across the stream bed. We paused, took out our binoculars, and realized that it was a collection of Spikenard plants (Aralia bicrenata). This is a plant that we have seen in only a few places on the mountain. And there, in their fall colors, was a family of at least a half a dozen plants. This photograph shows one of them.

We were surprised to see many Canadian violets. We noted one that had a lot of pink (they are usually pure white.) I also caught this picture of a seed pod that had recently burst open to fling out the seeds for the coming season.

Plants found flowering in Marshall Gulch, Oct 2, 2013
Ageratina  herbacea            Fragrant Snakeroot
Aquilegia chrysantha           Golden Columbine
Arenaria lanuginosa subsp. saxosa       Sandwort
Artemisia ludoviciana           Wormwood
Brickellia grandiflora            Brickellia
Brickellia rusbyi                   Brickellia
Castilleja austromontana     Mountain Paintbrush
Cirsium wheeleri                  Wheeler Thistle
Commelina dianthifolia         Dayflower
Conyza canadensis             Horseweed
Desmodium arizonicum        Arizona Tick Clover
Draba helleriana                  Heller’s Draba
Erigeron arizonicus              Arizona Fleabane
Erigeron  neomexicanum     New Mexico Fleabane
Galium mexicanum               Mexican Bedstraw
Geranium caespitosum        Wild Geranium
Geranium richardsonii          Richardson’s Geranium
Hedeoma hyssopifolia          Mock Pennyroyal
Hieracium crepidispermum (lemmoni)  Lemmon Hawkweed
Laennecia schiedeana         Laennecia
Lathyrus graminifolius          Peavine
Lobelia anatina                    Mountain Lobelia
Lupinus palmeri                   Palmer Lupine
Mimulus guttatus                 Yellow Monkeyflower
Mirabilis albida                    White Four O’clock
Penstemon barbatus           Red Penstemon
Pseudocymopterus montanus   Mountain Parsley
Pseudognaphalium macounii     Cudweed
Rumex obtusifolius              Bitter Dock
Satureja vulgaris  (Clinopodium)  Wild Basil
Senecio bigelovii                Nodding Groundsel
Silene scouleri                   Scouler’s Catchfly
Solidago velutina  subsp.sparsiflora     Sparse-flowered Goldenrod
Stevia plummerae               Plummer’s Stevia
Taraxacum officinale           Common Dandelion
Trifolium pinetorum             Pine Clover
Viola canadensis                Canada Violet

On the way up the mountain we saw crews working in Bear Canyon, putting up barriers to the washrooms and picnic areas. My first thought was: “The shut down of the government has come to the Catalina Mountains.”  When we started the hike in Marshall Gulch the bathrooms were open, but when we returned it was clear that the crew had made it to the top of the mountain, as you can see from this photograph.

Fortunately all of the trails are still open, but the bathrooms, picnic table and Ranger station are closed until the government is allowed to get back to work.