Ambronia villosa & Chaenacis fremontii

[abraxas]

Desert Sand Verbena and Desert Pincushion after sunset

 

[LaFoto]

How wonderful! The desert is blooming! Lovely. The light was perfect, I should say. The colours come out their best! Which is which then, i.e. which is the "pin cushion"? The purple?

 

[abraxas]

How wonderful! The desert is blooming! Lovely. The light was perfect, I should say. The colours come out their best! Which is which then, i.e. which is the "pin cushion"? The purple?

Thanks. The bloom doesn't last long. This shot is probably about a week after the peak.

I'm really starting to like shooting late in the day. The colors seem richer to me. This was about 15-20 minutes after sunset. I was hoping to get some wild-looking wind shots. I wanted to keep the mountains still and crisp while the flowers were blurring all over, like maybe in an impressionist painting? But for this picture, the last shot of the day, everything went dead still. I'll settle for it though . But someday I'll get what I want- Just might have to wait a year though.

The pincushions are the little white ones. Here's a closer view I shot a few years ago;
http://mojavedesert.net/wildflower/pin-cushion.html

The purple sand verbena are some of my favorites. Found only in sandy areas, such as near sand dunes they are a very aromatic flower. The air is filled with their perfume. Kinda can make my head swirl.
Another shot from a few years ago;
http://mojavedesert.net/wildflower/sand-verbena.html

A third kind in the area, and a few are visible on the right edge about 2/3 from the bottom are desert dunes evening primrose. These have very leafy, delicate white petals.
http://mojavedesert.net/wildflower/dune-primrose.html

I have fresh shots of all of these and 35 others I took this last week. I spent the weekend with the Joshua Tree National Park Botanist and a Botanist with Jepsen (-the- renowned plant guide publisher), teaching me and a handful of others how to identify blossoms and plants according to family, genus, species and subtaxon (if applicable). Not common names though, which is what I'm used to, unfortunatley. Up at 4am, go shoot photos until 8am and join the class and hike until 4 pm, shoot until 7:30pm, eat and be back in bed at my room by 9:30-10pm. Found out that if I'm really tired, I can sleep with my face directly buried in the pillow. Love this stuff though, wish I could live forever like that. Even though it hurts . Still exhausted, and only up to Asteraceae Geraca canescens, the hairy desert sunflower.