Please Click to Enlarge for Optimal Viewing! These are the air sacks and flowers of the unusual Paperbag Bush or Flower Sage.
This beautiful plant creates multi-colored air sacks that contain nuts. Purple flowers extend from the air sacs creating a reamarkably beautiful sight!
Please see this link for more info and this interesting plant. I do have more photos for those interested,.
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/salmex/all.html
Dehydrated Prickly Pear Cactus, waiting for rain to come so they can engorge with water!
Joshua Tree seed pods.
The twisted shapes of The Joshua’s!
Yucca flower remnant.
Jumping Cholla cacti. They are called jumping because they easily detach when brushed and dig right on in! Ouch!
Cholla catctus flowers.
What beauty there is to behold in every season in the living desert! Cheers to you from Joshua Tree National Park and The Mojave Desert!
Really nice my friend…all the photos, and I think the info you give is very interesting, but even more, everybody should get to know this! Have a great night…big hugs!
Hugz & thank yous back 2 U!
These pictures are absolutely beautiful!
You are absolutely kind to say so!! Cheers to you~
Amazing how these plants adapted to their environment, isn’t it?
Indeed and thrive in shallow windows when there is H2O!
Joshua tree national park is an interesting place to visit..
Ranu
Yes, quite unuusal! Cheers Ranu~
A m a z i n g !
These photos are stunning! Thank you for sharing with all of us!
thank you for appreciating them!
How extraordinary Cindy … no wonder you were entranced!
wonderful aren’t they! cheers to you~
Cindy, such great pics of these amazing plants!! Thanks for sharing!!
so happy you enjoyed them!
Beautiful captures 🙂
mil gazi!
Gorgeous photos. The desert has a beauty all its own.
Merci, in each season it has it’s own beauty!
That desert sure is abundantly beautiful. Thanks for the virtual tour. x
You are most welcome!
stunning and so distinctive from the East Coast!
Yes unique to the southwest! Grazi & cheers to you~
Awesome photos. Truly amazing how plants can thrive in such conditions.
It is isn’t it!!
Hi Cindy ,stunning pictures of Joshua trees.Whee we travel from California to Las Vegas to visit our Daughter and the grand Kids we see Joshua trees and the amazing flowers.Cheers.jalal
I have driven through them before, but never stopped to really look at them! Amazing aren’t they!
Who knew there were hidden gems in a desert?
Apparently they are everywhere!! Cheers to you ma deah!
Lovely, Cindy!!
“Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair…”
― Susan Polis Schutz
It would be hard to think, in the scope of one’s life, of a more worthwhile endeavor! Hugz to you for the quote~
Dancing across the blogger miles… 🙂
knowing you, your singing too!! bravo for you!
So many wonders; love the name, paper bag bush.
who said that? so many wonders to behold in our earth and skies……..YOU! Hugz to you. Hope to visit you!
We hope you do too!
🙂
So beautiful. And I really appreciate your desciption about your pictures. It’s so interesting to read! Thank you!
I am just beyond grateful that you appreciate it. Thank you for this~
You’re so welcome!
Beautiful photos!
Of beautiful living things! Thank you so much for liking them.
Thanks for sharing some of your native plants! That paper bag bush is very unique. I laugh at the jumping cactus… my dogs will find anything that can tangle and stick in their fur. It’s burr (burdock) time now and it’s easier to cut those out of the fur than brush out. Gesh, don’t know where they find them…
Dogs and cactus are a notoriously, comically-bad mix. Since I have lived in these parts, all my life, I know what you are talking about. Most of it is inconvenient and the dog learns faster then we do. But there are some serious exceptions, the cholla is one to avoid, and far worse, but medicinally important, in the blue agave cactus, Remarkable plants. But you must have enough sense to teach your dog to avoid, now matter how tempting the rabbit is that ran into it is. The poison on the spears can kill a dog.
Yet these plants are one of the few that prosper under extreme adverstiy. If you are dying of thirst in the desert, find one they will keep you alive.
Great info to know! Thanks 🙂
The colors of Flower sage are beautiful. For some reason, the Dehydrated Prickly Pear Cactus look scary to me.
It’s partly because I missed the optimal season.. I caught the colors of the flower sage slightly too late, the air sacks were about to burst, and the remaining purple flowers were withering.
The prickly pear will live, you saw it in extremist, if it doesn’t get water soon, it will die.But it will.get water and it will survive.
It is just a patient plant.
But yes, life in such austerity, if rain doesn’t come, should be frightening, because we are not as resilient as plants.
I am quite impressed you noticed this.
Hugz my friend.
Beautiful plants! beautiful photos!
The word “exotic” is an understatement.
I love the last photo. The cactus looks so “warm”. It makes me wanna hug it, even though it is thorny. LOL!
You are so wonderful Hari. What did I ever do right enough to meet you?
Oh, such kind words, Cindy!
Well, you posted many wonderful pictures that inspire many people, including me for sure! 😀
Cheers to you my friend!
Reblogged this on Anything and Everything Possible 4 U and commented:
Beautiful photo’s again! You amaze me with your talent!
Well, what could possibly be more rewarding than meeting people like you? I can’t find you in the checkout lines.
😀
Thanks for sharing Cindy. Boy – – – are we glad you travel so much and take such great pictures.
Boy, I am glad I met you!
I think about you and your wife a lot.
Wonder how you are both doing.
The biggest lesson I have learned from life?
Grab it hard by the neck,
Shake it.
Don’t let it go.
Make it work.
Hard,
for you,
before you are gone.
Hugz……
big ones,
my friend.
Hi Cindy. We are both hanging in there (sometimes by our fingertips). Thanks for the pep talk. I needed it and it made me dig a little deeper.
I am not doing much with writing or reading blogs but I keep an eye out for your great trips and photos, Ginger fight back’s crazy humor, A Daily Thought’s interesting videos, and one or two others.
Take care
You too my friend. I am thinking of you both~
All so beautiful, Cindy. I’ll stay away from the cactus. 🙂
smart woman!
Beautiful…I always wanted to see a Joshua Tree.
The interesting thing is how perfectly unique each one is.
Nice variety showcased–I adore the desert and its spare essence. Have seen them all except the Flower Sage, which is captivating. Thanks for introducing it.
The flower sage was new to me as well! Now I am looking in to growing some at The Holler. I missed the optimal photo window by a few days, when the purple flowers are all over the air sacs! Amazing plant~
The Paper bag Bush is really beautiful and how incredible is the Joshua Tree seed pods, I never saw such a tree 🙂 !
Just so strange aren’t they! So strange, they are beautiful! Cheers & great hearing from you my friend!
Glad to hear from you !
Fascinating plants, Cindy. I am forever amazed about how nature responds to different environments and desert plants are some of the most amazing. I went back and looked at my photos from Joshua Tree. Your adventure helped inspire my next blog series. Peggy and I are heading off to Mexico for three weeks and I needed something to post in the meantime. I decided to do a series on the National Park photos we’ve taken. –Curt
OOOOOh!!! I am going to be at your blog. The NP’s are the most remarkable and wonderful places! I can never see enough of them!
Great Cindy. Hope you enjoy the photos. The national Parks are such treasures… and each one is so unique. –Curt
beauties as always Cindy…you know I love seeing your photos of the southern states…I think I was born in the wrong area…should have been a place without cold and snow…not sure what happened along the way? 😉
Well one can always move one day, as long as you wouldn’t miss all the beauty that comes with the snow and ice and lakes?????
Paperbag Bush is absolutely beautiful! Jumping Cholla is interesting 🙂
Yes the paperbag bush was a new plant for me! The cholla I know to steer clear of!!
beautiful images
That Paperbag Bush or Flower Sage is beautiful. I’m enjoying your travels, my friend! 😉
Oh good! I love traveling with you!
Liebe Cindy wünsche dir eine schöne gute Nacht und sei ganz lieb gegrüßt Klaus
Danke shoen freundlich! 🙂
Hi Cuz,
I love it ! I get a free nature lesson every time you go somewhere! I knew about the prickly pear and the cholla, but had never seen the “paper bag bush”. Sorta strange and beautiful all in the same breath. Nice pics.
Thank you cuz!! The desert has a strange beauty~
Very pretty.
Merci beaucoup!
Very pretty!
So happy you think so!!
I felt the sun glare in my eyes! 😀
Don’t let it blind you as you walk, you wouldn’t want to get a poke!!! 🙂
I love these plants Cindy, fascinating! We don’t have anything like these in England – they obviously require some serious heat to keep them happy!! 😀
Yes indeed! Remarkable resilience in a harsh environment!
Stunning plants. That Prickly Pear was brought to Australia and used as a hedge that then went feral and became a terrible curse. It is now under control when they brought in an insect that would eat it.
WOW!! What insect? People eat the prickly pears here. They are quite tasty!!
http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/76606/IPA-Prickly-Pear-Control-PP29.pdf This link will give you a brief description of the ecological disaster prickly pear created and the use of cochineal insects to control them
Wow!! Australia has such a uniquely isolated eco-system. Introduced plants and animals (like rabbits and prickly pears) created such mayhem. Quite interesting. Thank you for the link!
Such beautiful colors! Your images are a treat for the eyes on this gray and foggy day. 🙂
That makes me feel good! Cheers to you~
The paper bag bush is amazing!
I agree! It was the first time I had seen or heard of it and I was amazed! Thank you & cheers to you~
Hello Cindy! Very interesting post. I love the photography! 🙂
Awww, very kind! Thank you~
Beautiful!!
Muchas gracias mi amiga, y que amable! (very nice of you!)
The pictures are breathtaking! Your posts always mesmerize me. Thank you for being such a talented woman…
Visa versa to you my friend x2!! 🙂
All your beautiful photos are still refreshing, inspiring… weeks or months later.
Awww you are a joy, as is your blog! Thank you Amy~
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