Hiking on South Mountain, Phoenix

We are spending Xmas this year in Phoenix. Brian and Lea live at the extreme south end of the Phoenix area, just at the base of South Mountain Park, which claims to be the largest municipal park in the country. Yesterday we did a bit of hiking there.

After so much time working on prairies and savannas, it was quite a shock to see thousands of acres of land with no ground vegetation at all. Only shrubs and a few scrawny trees, plus lots and lots of saguaro cactuses, which seem to thrive here.

Other cacti that we saw were cholla, ocotilla, and barrel, all of which looked quite attractive when backlighted by the brilliant afternoon sun. There was also a lot of palo verde, a large shrub which has green stems that are themselves photosynthetic. Thus, even if all its leaves are dropped in a drought, this shrub is still able to make its own organic building blocks.

After Christmas we will be taking off for southeastern Arizona, where I have my eye on some interesting oak savanna areas. More later.