Tunisia.  Really, what's there to see?

     Note: I will be gone for a two-week trip to Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, so there will not be a post for several weeks.

     Recently I visited Tunisia.  It's a desert country, so what could there be to see of horticultural beauty, one might ask.  Plenty.
     The first photo shows an "orchard" (what does one call it, anyhow?) of olive trees. 
     The second shows the male flowers of a palm sold in the medina of the city of Sfax.  If people have only female palms, they then fertilize their trees with the pollen.
     The next two photos show a pretty yellow-flowered bush in the desert.  Unknown name, so I'd appreciate an identification.
      I would also appreciate knowing the name of one of the toughest plants I've ever seen, a purple-flowered small plant growing along a road.
      The next two photos were taken in a mud-house complex 300 years old, which was used to represent the town of Mos Espa on the planet Tatoonie in the Star Wars film, "The Phantom Menace."
     The palms were growing in an oasis plantation in the southern desert.  The desert also had the beautiful purple-flowering shrub next to a cactus, also needing a name.
     More photos of Tunisia will appear in the next post--after I return from my next trip.

The Galapagos Islands are certainly interesting.

     In 1835 Charles Darwin found the Galapagos Islands quite interesting.  Of course, that led to his conception of the theory of natural selection and evolution.  I, too, found it interesting, both the flora and the fauna.
     Given that the islands are volcanic and on the equator, plants face adversity in growing there.  So, one can find some tough cacti there, shown in the first three photos.
     The next photo shows perhaps the prettiest cemetery I have ever seen, followed by an acacia tree (unknown species).
     The remaining photos are of lichens, ferns, mosses, and bromeliads, a bit surprising given the volcanic conditions.