FLOWERS IN DECEMBER

It is December 12 in sunny Arizona. We have had a number of days where we woke up to ice on our bird-bath. It is still cool at night, but today was sunny and pleasantly warm. Dave and I went to Molino Basin. We walked up the dry stream bed, only once coming across a little pool, left over from the rains just over two weeks ago. We looked for signs of aquatic life, but only found a few dead plants and insects in the water.
stream-bed The dry stream bed
Althogh we knew that we were in the middle of December, we looked out for wild-flowers, and found more than we expected.  Most abundant was the Hummingbird trumpet (Epilobium canum). Then we saw a few flowers of the Gumhead (Gymnosperma glutinosum) which we have seen blooming most months of the year, though its main season seems to be late fall. It was a great treat to see the blue flowers of Stemodia (Stemodia durantifolia). Then there were two more yellow composites: Little lemon head (Coreocarpus arizonicus), and, one of my favorites, Bur marigold (Bidens aurea).

humming-bird-trumpet Hummingbird trumpet (picture below – the same with butterflies)

hummmingbird-with-butterflies

gymnosperma Gumhead

stemodia Stemodia

little-lemon-head Little lemon head

bur-marigold Bur marigold

We sat on the warm sand as time disappeared and we felt the healing power of being in the mountains again.

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