It was Linnaeus that created the name Mimosa from the Greek: mimos for mime and the suffix osa for resembling. As to the plant jabbered about in this episode, it was Asa Gray that named the species grahamii to honor James Graham and probably at William Emory’s suggestion…fellow soldier surveyors in the field. The photos are mine.…

Lemme see… I forgot to include the Baboquivari Mountains along with the Huachuca Mountains as a place to find Aquilegia longissima. I’m thinking that will get my son-in-law Jared pretty excited as we have been talking about how the Baboquivaris must have a treasure trove of cool plants. Yup, looks like. The meaning of the genus name Aquilegia is ta…

Arizona rainbow hedgehog cactus is Echinocereus rigidissimus. That name hasn’t changed, but the black throated gray warbler is now Setophaga nigrescens…no longer Dendroica. Jeez, but okay, okay, I’ll make a pencil note in our Peterson and Sibley field guides. I like a field guide with checks and notes anyway. The photos are mine of a rainbow hedgeh…

Maianthemum racemosum is in the family Asparagaceae and there are two subspecies of Maianthemum The subspecies out here in the mountainous forests of the western U.S. is amplexicaule, so it reads like this: Maianthemum racemosum ssp. amplexicaule. Between the two subspecies, False Solomon’s Seal can be found all over North America…all over…and into…

I love that sign. I call it the Robert Frost sign. I think Ms. Mesquitey is tired of me saying that. I love her too.By Petey Mesquitey

I love desert ironwood trees….love peering under them to see the plants they’re nursing …love the purple and white flowers and seed pods that follow… never minded the spiny branches tugging at my clothing and sometimes drawing blood… and, love the litter beneath them. The desert ironwood is a beautiful tree…yeah, it is. The photo is mine.…

Over the years I’ve found populations of desert honeysuckle with different colored flowers, so I’ve grown plants with red brick colored flowers, with orange flowers and with yellow flowers. I’ve read that white flowering plants can be found. Can’t wait! There are other Anisacanthus spp. and cultivars to be found at your favorite native plant nurser…

There are 30 species of Dalea found in Arizona, many of which are the the nursery trade because they are so doggone pretty. How cool is that? Very. Feather bush (Dalea formosa) can be found in lots of different plant communities around Arizona, New Mexico and across the border into Sonora and Chihuahua. It sure seems to like warm rocky rubble where…

I have grown New Mexico locust (Robinia neomexicana) in the past for some contract grows and I quickly learned that the spines don’t get any friendlier in cultivation. Oh, and I mentioned that this plant grows in thickets and so where I grew it in our nursery the roots escaped the containers and we now have a small thicket. Yikes! Oh well, we get p…

There are a couple other species of Eysenhardtia found over in Texas and more species as you head into Mexico and as far south as Guatemala. But hey, meanwhile here at home if you live in or like to hang out in Bisbee, Arizona you can find kidneywood (Eysenhardtia orthocarpa) along the sides of the road around Warren and San Jose. I’ve come across …

This was a fun episode to write…well, maybe fun isn’t the right word, but it was great to get excited about hedgehog cactus again. What a hoot! The reference used for the hedgehog cacti jabbered about in this episode is Field Guide to Cacti and Other Succulents of Arizona. A great field guide. I recommend getting the second edition as some changes …

The riparian woodland where we were hiking is around 6,000 ft. in elevation and I think that may be the upper limits of the elf owls elevation range. Elf owls (Micrathene whitneyi) winter in southern Mexico, then migrate in the spring to southern Arizona, southwest New Mexico and west Texas where they breed and summer over in a few different biotic…

Bristlehead (Carphochaete bigelovii) is a small shrub that I’m not sure I would have recognized without the flowers and bristles. I wonder if I’ve wandered by this species many times before wondering what the heck it was. The flowers and bristles that helped my ID are contained in a very cool looking long involucre and I read that the throats of th…

Vines can make a landscape so wild and fermina (Cottsia gracilis) is a great addition to a native landscape, climbing up into a paloverde or maybe an ironwood tree. The flowers of plants in the Malpighiaceae are so distinct and…I dunno…I just love them and if you looked up Cottsia gracilis (Janusia) in a flora it would say that the flowers are dimo…

photo credits: Marian and BridgitteBy Petey Mesquitey

I gathered seed of Ceanothus greggii on a rocky slope in May. Buck brush is what I’m talking about and yeah, it’s easier to say. It got that common name cause it’s good browse, especially for deer. So I put those seed capsules in an envelope very near, where I sit to write down plant lists and sometimes write a check. So I’m sitting there and hear …

It’s hard to believe I didn’t mention the beautiful color of the trunks and branches of manzanita. I must have just assumed everyone knew manzanita had beautiful trunks. I apologize and here ya go: The smooth trunks and older branches are very reddish brown or sometimes more brownish red, or sorta maroonish, but always beautiful. The photos are min…

I love Toumey oaks…I know, I said that, but we have several planted at our little homestead. I think if I lived in and around Tucson I’d be tempted to try this small native oak. Well, of course I would, cause I love this oak. The photos are mine and taken of Toumey oak seedlings in our greenhouse.By Petey Mesquitey

Growing plants and being involved in horticulture since 1980 meant knowing the USDA’s plant hardiness zones so I could jabber to folks knowingly (Ha!) about plant choices for their personal habitat. To make things a little more confusing Sunset Magazine created their own hardiness and planting zones for the Western US. Jeez, Sunset! During my brief…

There are many nations and languages found in the borderlands. The photos are mine.By Petey Mesquitey

I grew and sold California buckthorn for several years. Early on I sold it wholesale to other nurseries, but I also sold it at Farmers Markets in Cochise County. I’m a terrible plant promoter I guess and the plant never really got popular, at least in my circles. It’s ironic because in California there are some named cultivars (nativars folks like …

The etymology of the word mistletoe is all over the place and has been traced to Old English, Middle English, Anglo Saxon and old German…a mix of all of the above. I do like the meaning “dung on a twig.” And listen, mistletoe is really an excellent plant for birds, so why don’t native plant nurseries offer Phoradendron californicum for your ironwoo…

When I would give talks I would always show photos and talk about our regional yucca species; Yucca elata, Yucca baccata and Yucca madrensis… Yucca madrensis, by the way, is the former Yucca schottii, but here’s what’s cool about this resident of the Madrean Evergreen Woodlands; it’s pollinated by a different moth species than Y. baccata or Y. elat…

The Apache fox squirrel – one of a few common names, but always Sciurus nayaritensis…is found in the Sierra Madre Occidental from Nayarit and north all the way to the Chiricahua Mountains where Ms. Mesquitey and I can be found poking around looking at local flora and fauna. The photos are mine.By Petey Mesquitey

This is an episode about hearing my heart beat. I initially was going to talk about the noise made by ORVs, ATVs, SUVs and pickup trucks out in the deserts and hills. I fall in the “pickup truck” category. Don’t want you thinking I’m a holier than thou sorta guy…ha! Anyway, guess I’ll pontificate about all that another time. You’re welcome. So, thi…