Archive | November 2017
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Mojave Yucca
This is a common plant of the Mojave Desert where, like many other plants, it has adapted to the water scarce ecosystem. With thick waxy coatings to its leaves to reduce loss of water through transpiration and thick roots to store water, this plant thrives in rocky slopes and mesas of the desert.
Beavertail Cactus
This is a low spreading plant of dry, rocky slopes in the Mojave Desert at Red Rock Canyon. It is well adapted to grow in the parched desert environment. As with other desert cacti, this plant’s leaves are spines. These thorny leaves have less surface area than broad leaves of deciduous plants. This reduces water loss […]
The Joshua Tree – A Desert Survivalist
The Joshua tree, named by Mormon pioneers after their prophet, is the signature plant of the Mojave Desert. This is the only place in the world it is found. It is an evergreen plant that can reach a height of 40 feet and live for upwards of 200 years. It endures the harsh, dry desert […]
One of The Driest Places in North America
In southwestern U.S. there is a region that receives less than 13 inches of rainfall annually with arid mountains and parched soils. It is the 25,000-square mile Mojave Desert. This desert has extremes in temperatures ranging from over 100 degrees in the summer to sub-freezing temperatures in the winter. The soils are arid with poor […]
Keystone Thrust at Red Rock Canyon
As Anne and I traveled around Red Rock Canyon in Nevada, we saw immense gray carbonate mountains next to with the red sandstone hills. At about the same time as the dinosaurs became extinct, 65 million years ago, there was a shoving match between two tectonic plates. The Pacific plate pushed under the North America […]
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