Land of the Spanish Dagger

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Medina River Natural Area, El Chaparral > Nogales >
Lower Rio Medina > El Camino Trails

Today's photos:

After a morning of leading a tour at the Medina River Natural Area, the best option for a walk today to take photos for a blog post was to go one more time around the trail loop in the early afternoon. This is just a small sample of what I encountered. Once again, I took so many photos, it will take a while to sort through all of them.

• The first photo is Spanish Dagger Yucca with a large stand of Prickly Pear cactus in the foreground and a Honey Mesquite tree immediately behind the yucca.
• The second and third photo are close ups of the Spanish Dagger Yucca flowers. The small green insect with the black spots just to the right of center is a Spotted Cucumber Beetle.
• The fourth photo is a close up of Texas Persimmon leaves. This particular tree has just set its new leaves and has done so earlier than most of the other persimmon trees in the area.
• The fifth, sixth and seventh photo are a Phaon Crescent butterfly getting a drink of water from between the rocks on the edge of the river. Phaon Crescents are very similar to Pearl Crescents except the Phaons have a yellow-orange stripe on the forewing.
• The eighth photo is a Texas Rose-bellied Lizard looking out over a low mound of soil. It wasn't much interested in posing for a photo. I was only able to take this one before it disappeared.
• The ninth photo is a Purple Leatherflower, also known as purple clematis, that hasn't quite fully opened yet.
• The tenth photo is a close up of Box Elder seeds still on the tree from the Fall. Anyone who knows much about tree seeds will immediately recognize that the box elder is in the maple family.