Back from the desert

     I recently returned from an 18-day trip, spent mainly in Utah and Arizona.  I need to rest up, as I leave for another trip in two weeks, this time to Nicaragua and Honduras.  I will be gone a lot this winter, hoping to see lots of gardens and green stuff, in general, as not much is green here anymore--except for my moss.
     I spent three delightful hours visiting the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.  As it is in the Sonora Desert, the gardens has a huge variety of cacti and succulents.  The most interesting plant I found was what looked like a power pole with spikes protruding from it.  It is Fouquieria columnaris, or Boojum Tree, in the Octillo family.  It is native to northern Mexico and Baja California.  It appears in photos four and five.