I am now off on another of my world-famous trips Out West. I left on Tuesday (May 30) and arrived at El Malpais the next day. Again, I stayed at the (free!) Joe Skeen Campground.
I really liked my visit there last year, so on this trip I added a short stop, mainly to complete some items that I had hoped to get to last year but didn’t get to. But this blog entry is just another look at the campground.
Lying around the place are these “bones” or “antlers” of some sort.
Bone?
I’ll tell you what they are at the end of this post, but see if you can guess.
This time I was at the highest campsite there. Last year I was at campsite 2; this time it was #5.
Joe Skeen Campsites
It had a pretty good view across El Malpais.
The View from #5
As before, on the east side behind my campsite there was a rock face.
What’s Behind
And I was able to climb it (there’s access off to the left).
The View from Behind
It was a very comfortable place (though a bit chilly and rainy). Here I am in the evening reading a good book with a glass of wine.
Evening Relaxing
OK, let’s get back to that “bone”. It’s from a plant, a cactus in particular. Here’s a picture of a living one.
It’s From a Cactus.
Some of them were even flowering.
Flowering Cactus
And would you like a close-up of that flower. Of course you would.
The Flowers
Finally, here’s yet another one of those plant bones. It was lying right at the base of one of the cacti, confirming its origin. I find it really interesting how it is “sculpted” instead of solid.
Big Bones
From here on, I’m not sure what sort of internet access I’ll be getting, so these posts will just appear rather randomly. I’ll probably have a bit of catching up to do when I get home.
But for now . . .
Bon voyage, Bob. I think you’ve photographed the cactus fruit, not flower. Check out the links here:
http://www.fireflyforest.com/flowers/911/cylindropuntia-spinosior-walkingstick-cactus/
and here:
http://www.americansouthwest.net/plants/cacti/cylindropuntia-spinosior.html
What a fascinating part of the world, huh?
Thank you! When trying to blog on the road with poor connections, I’m generally not able to research the way I can at home (though in this case I don’t think it would have even occurred to me that those weren’t the flowers—but I might have looked up the species and found out accidentally.)
That sculpted look on the plant skeleton is the result of the leaf trace gaps, the spaces left in the central cylinder, made by xylem, when this leaf traces arc out into the leaves.