Desert color

The vivid color of desert vegetation never ceases to amaze me. This year's flowering seems a bit prolonged, but that's just my personal observation. The first photos were taken on 5/29/10.

Flame throwing ocotillo (above). Ocotillo grow throughout the Southern California deserts, e.g., near Palm Desert and Borrego Springs. This one resides on the southern entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. I made no enhancements to the photo.

Close-up of the ocotillo flowers (above). No enhancements to the photo.

Something from the Stonecrop family (above). Being in the shadow takes away some of its vivid color.

A Cholla Cactus forest (above) marks the elevation change from Colorado (lower) desert and Mojave (higher) desert where Joshua trees grow.

Looks like a garnish (above), but I didn't try it. Besides, vegetation is protected at Joshua Tree, as it should be.

The next set of photos were taken a week earlier, under an overcast sky. For these, the saturation levels were increased about 10 percent.

Here's an amazing bush that occurs sporadically:

This resembles a poppy, but may be something from the mallow family...

... and is very tiny, as shown by the size 12 shoe. Frequent readers will notice I have new shoes :)

A flowering Mojave Yucca stands out in the distance.

Reaching the yucca is challenging, for nearly every square foot of ground looks like this:

The yucca up close:

A beaver tail cactus from a month earlier (2 May 2010):

Probably Indian Paintbrush: