More Fall Wildflowers!

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

The flowers are blooming into fall! Here are five more for the One Hundred Species Challenge.

19. Chrysothamnus nauseosis, rabbitbush.

This shrubby plant grows where the land has been overgrazed in the past...
and in the xeriscaped gardens of Albuquerquians--despite the rather strong smelling leaves that gives it the species designation.

20. Ratibida pinnata, Prairie Coneflower.

This makes a wonderful, tummy-soothing

annise flavored tea, and the natives

also make a saffron color dye from it.

The cones have a wonderful smell that is very

strong in the heat of the afternoon.

21. Giallardia grandiflora, blanket flower or fireweed.

This is native to our dry, sandy soils, but has become a popular garden flower in the north and east. The rays open up spiral fashion.

22. Asclepius verticella, Whorled Milkweed.

These are already out of flower,

and have gone to seed.

The leaves and stems contain a

milky latex that is poisonous

to most animals, but Monarch butterflies

eat them exclusively, and thus

become bitter tasting to birds.

The genus name is taken from

the Greek god of healing, Aesclepius.

Geranium richardsonii, Cranesbill.

In our mountains, Cranesbills tend to be more purple
or blue than pink. They have a long bill-like
seed pod that bursts open when it dries out and can
shoot the seeds over 20 feet. The cultivated
geranium is in the same family (Geranaceae), but it
is not in the Geranium genus, but is instead a Pelargonium.

One Hundred Species Challenge!

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

While I was teaching reading this summer, Sarah over at Homeschooling the Doctorate, began the 100 -Species Challenge. The purpose of the challenge is to compile a list of 100 species of plants that can be found within walking distance of home. The rules to the challenge can be found at the link above.

I informally started my list a few Nearly Wordless Wednesdays ago, in a post called August Wildflowers at Sedillo, but I did not number the list, so I will do that first:

1. Helianthus neomexicanus, New Mexico Sunflowers

2. Erigeron compositus, Cutleaf Daisy

3. Physalis ixocarpa, Tomatilla

4. Melitotis Officialis, Sweet Clover

5. Bouteloua gracilis, Blue Grama Grass

6. Gilia aggregata, Scarlet Gilia

7. Sphaeralcea var., Globemallow

I am intending to do at least two Nearly Wordless Wednesday Posts per month that include pictures of the plants I have identified. This is going to be fun because although botany was the foundation of my field in my biological studies, it has been years since I have even opened my plant collections. Although I often identify plants by sight as I walk, many of them I remember only to the family or genus level.

8. Quercus gambelii--Gambel's Oak, often called Scrub Oak, it is often very difficult to tell scrub oak apart at the species level. Scrub oak is very promiscuous--that is the separately identified 'species' often cross, producing hybrids. Plants often refuse to obey the rules of species definition!

9. Pinus ponderosa var. scopularum, Ponderosa Pine. At our elevation of approximately 7500 feet, there are a few Ponderosa's scattered among the Pinyon and Juniper trees. In our mountains, we are at the ecotone, or transition zone, between the Pinyon-Juniper Woodland and Ponderosa Pine Forest. At the top of the ridge behind our house, Pondersa Pines are the dominant trees.







10. Juniperus scopulorum, Rocky Mountain Juniper. In this stand of Juniper, the Rocky Mountain Juniper spiecies is the one that is bluish in color. RM Juniper also has a weepy growth habit, and these are ways to tell it apart from...

11. Juniperus monosperma, One-seed Juniper. This is the green Juniper shrubs behind the Rocky Mountain Juniper. One-seed Juniper has a stiffer habit.

These two are different species and not merely varieties of Juniper, and are therefore legitimately counted separately. However, plants just don't obey the species definition rules very well at all! They are far more profligate than are animals.

12. Linum usitatissimum, Common Flax. Flax plants are considered to be the plants upon which civilization was built. Linum ssp. are found all over the world and have been used by human beings from prehistory to today.

13. Opuntia clavata, Devil Cholla or Club Cholla. There are actually 20 different species of Cholla (genus Opuntia) that grow in the Americas. Cacti are New World Plants, and plants that look like cacti but are native to the Old World are products of convergent evolution--they are not actually related to cacti. O. clavata is native to the Chihuahuan desert and surrounding mountains of central New Mexico.

It is the plant to the left in the picture. The Cholla is growing next to a young pine.

Cloudburst!

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

This past weekend, the weather was decidely un-New Mexico. We had morning fog Friday and Saturday morning, and on both days we had clouds and rain all day.

Here, the cloud has settled on our mountain, obscuring the distance, bringing the close objects nearer, and as we walked the familiar aspects of the landscape seemed different, closer, more intimate.

On Saturday afternoon the thunder rolled and the heavens opened up! In the first wave, 0.30 inches fell in about ten minutes.

Here, water cascades, a river, down the driveway.

Then the rain fell harder, and the drops were larger;

they made crown-like splashes in the rapidly forming puddles.

The stream in the drive became a river, and I could not help but wonder what it looked like in the culvert on the new road.

Following the storm, clear water ponded against the low wall of the door garden, and we could hear it dripping off the trees and shrubs, and splashing down the narrow beginning of Sedillo wash.

That afternoon's total rainfall was over an inch in an hour. Later that evening, while we were in town get recieved another half-inch for a grand total of 1.5 inches for the day!

It was spectacular!

The general geological principle of gradualism--that changes on the earth's surface happen by the slow and steady weathering of rock does not totally explain the changes wrought by our western cloudbursts. Here, at the southern end of the new road at Los Pecos Loop, this one cloudburst wore down the borrow ditch by about a foot, and spread rocks and silt on the roadway.

Water is very powerful, being a reasonably heavy compound in which the molecules a pulled together by polarity. It moves very fast downhill, so that about two feet of water on a slight incline can sweep away a grown man.

A desert mountain cloudburst can downcut an arroyo by three feet in half-an-hour!

Lughnasadh: The Third Cross-Quarter Day

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

...Wisdom's gift opens the gates of the heavens,

The gift of Divine understanding makes the ages pass and

the seasons come and go...

--Ma'ariv Aravim, A Poem by E. Levin

Sunrise over the meadow horizon,
August 8, 2008.

The Cross-Quarter came at 21:08 MDT, August 6, 2008. Unfortunately, so did the remnants of Tropical Storm Eduardo! This was the first sunrise I could photograph.

The August Cross-Quarter marks the time when the earth is exactly halfway between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox in the northern hemisphere. It reminds us that summer is passing into fall, and that the days are getting shorter. In the Old European religion, this cross-quarter, called Lughnasadh was the beginning of the harvest season, and thus the beginning of autumn.

This was the approximate position of

sunrise on June 22, 2008.

Again, the weather made it difficult to photograph.

The sunrise was not visible.

This photograph was taken about

40 minutes after sunrise.

Sunrise on June 21 would have been the farthest north on the eastern horizon for the entire year. This sunrise would have been to the left of the solar position in the picture.

Sunrise on May 5, 2008--the second cross-quarter day of the year.

That sunrise was in approximately the same position as the August cross-quarter.
In May, the days were getting progressively longer and the sunrises appeared further and further north.
Now the days are getting shorter, and the sunrises appear further and further south.




The sunrise on March 20, 2008,

the day after the Vernal Equinox.

Human beings have used observations

of the sun's rising and setting to mark

the passage of the seasons as long as

we have understood our own mortality

and possessed the secret of planning for

the future--another gift of Wisdom.

Summer is passing, autumn is coming on. Wisdom recognizes the need to prepare for a new season.

August Wildflowers at Sedillo

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

After a hot dry weekend during the new moon, when the Monsoons were interrupted by a high-pressure ridge, they have resumed in full force, with cloudbursts on Sunday and Monday evenings, and a long morning rain yesterday here at Sedillo in the Sandias.

The August wildflowers are beginning to open up and bring color to our muted pinyon-juniper woodland.

Helianthus neomexicanis

New Mexico Sunflower

Asteraceae --the Aster family (formerly called Composites)

Erigeron compositus

Cutleaf Daisy

aka Fleabane

Asteraceae--Aster family

(There has been some move to put

the erigerons in their own family.

I don't know what has happened with that).

Physalis ixocarpa

Tomatillo (Mexican Ground Cherry)

Solanaceae--Potato Family

This has flowers in which the calyx forms the chinese latern of green around the fruit.

Melilotus officialis

Sweet Clover

Leguminaceae--Pea Family

There is also a white variety, called M. albus.

Bouteloua gracilis

Blue Gramma Grass

Poeaceae--Grass family

Yes, grasses are flowering plants! Wind pollenated, they do not create showy flowers, though. The grass flower is quite small and unique. Here you can see the characteristic "eye-brow" of the flower. Black gramma is more robust and has a hairy root.

Gilia aggregata

Scarlet Gilia aka Foxfire

Polemoniaceae--Phlox family

Sphaeralcea var.

Globemallow aka Falsemallow

Malvaceae--Mallow family

The leaves and stems of these, crushed, make a fine poultice for muscle aches. Although the flowers are usually orange, I have seen pink and white and yellow, as well.

Afternoon Drives to Santa Fe

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

The Engineering Geek and I have been making the drive up the Turquoise Trail to Santa once a week in the afternoon, during this late-summer term for IRD teaching.

We have stopped to take quite a few good pictures on the way. So without further ado, here they are!

Thunderheads build over El Corazon de los Ortiz, July 16, 2008.

Looking north toward Madrid and across to Santa Fe on the descent from the Ortiz. July 16, 2008.

Iglesia San Jose, in Old Cerillos, NM, July 23, 2008.

Rain over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Santa Fe, NM, July 16, 2008

Looking from San Marcos, NM, across the Galisteo Basin. July 23, 2008.

Sunset thunderstorm, looking southwest from Santa Fe Community College, July 23, 2008.

The world may be going to perdition, but what a view we have from our mountain paradise.

Every time I make this commute, I still say: "And they pay me to do this!"

Road Construction Complete: An Ode to Practical Genius

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

The heavy equipment is gone and the
road signs are up!
The Los Pecos Trail extension and
Los Pecos Loop are complete!

The utilities are humming at the side of road.

Until Los Pecos Homeschool made a project

out of following all the phases of

road construction across previously undeveloped land,

we had no idea what really goes into building a road. It has been a great learning to experience this project from start to finish. Such learning does not come everyday.

It is kind of amazing to consider that ten months ago, this road was a line on a map, and before that it was a spark of inspiration in the developers head as he walked through the tangled woods.

Now, it is something new under the sun!

Everything is in place: the grades, the drainage, the utility lines underneath. Soon we will forget that this hill was a tangled mass of juniper and scrub-oak, and very difficult to navigate. It is already beginning to seem like this road belongs here; that it has always been here.

And therin lies a certain danger. Many people in this country have no idea what is required to have roads, utilities and houses. They do not understand the creativity and ingenuity that go into our modern infrastructure.

And thus it has been neglected. From highways to levees, we just expect it to be there. We often don't stop to consider the amazing work of the human mind and imagination it takes to build even a simple road. We don't believe we should have to put up with the cost and inconvenience that go along along with maintaining infrastructure. And so we don't appreciate this kind of practical genius that makes our lives so rich and full, and immensely easier.

A Day in the Life of Monsoon Season

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

The morning began with a rare mist over South Mountain in the pre-dawn gloaming.

The sun rose over Los Pecos Homeschool, scattering a golden light across the mist.

Moisture aplenty in the air means that

afternoon rain is in store for Sedillo.

In the forenoon, clouds already gather
up against South Mountain.
There is rain to the south, and to the east.

Frontal weather brings clouds

cascading down the Sandia Mountain Front,

like water spilling over a dam.

Low clouds gather over

Cedar Crest and Tijeras.

Rain falls on the curve of the new road, at Los Pecos Loop, nature testing the design of the drainage, and water gathers in the borrow ditch below.

The strategically placed rocks slow down the water and keep the slope from rilling.

Clouds over Los Pecos, and rain washing across the Sandias. There will be eight muddy paws to

wipe on the porch, and two underbellies to dry.

Tea in the kitchen as the thunder rumbles and rolls above, and the sound of the steady rain beats on the metal roof.

Flash Flood Alert: This is the 'Semi' Part!

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

In the past few days very wet air coming up from the Gulf has precipitated very good Monsoon conditions along the east side of the Central Mountain Chain.

Here, afternoon thunderstorms build over the Sandia Mountain Front.

Last night, the heavens opened.

We received 0.49 inches of rain in about 30 minutes.

The white flecks you see are raindrops illuminated by the flash. The larger streaks and ghosts are from streams of water falling over the eaves.

This morning we surveyed the results of last night's gullywasher.

Rarely, does one see standing water in our desert mountains. Here, we see the borrow ditch along the extension of Los Pecos doing its job.

But there was trouble in the large culvert on Los Pecos Loop. Much standing water, and washout below meant that the contractor has to remodel how the drainage will work there.

Yesterday, they had dug out the rock bed downstream of the road. Now, there is more water and more work.

Although the rock dams did slow down the water last night, the intensity of the rainfall and the ground saturation created downstream rilling that could eventually undercut the rocks.

Upper level disturbances over the

San Pedro Valley at dawn

is a good indicator that the

flash flood warnings for this

afternoon are accurate.

Bruce and I are driving to Santa Fe this afternoon. He is taking one of the two evening reading classes I am teaching at Santa Fe Community College-UNM Continuing Education extension. I hope there is no serious water on the road at Madrid and Cerillos.

I remember my first Monsoon* season in New Mexico in 1982. I arrived at an Advanced Geomorphology class soaked from the knees down from wading across Lomas Blvd. (Albuquerque proper has no serious storm drains). As I stood in the doorway, water running off my umbrella, I announced to my classmates: "I thought that I was moving to a semi-arid climate!"

The professor responded: "This is the 'semi' part."

*In New Mexico the Monsoon is always capitalized. It it almost spoken in italics. It is that important.

Rainbow Over Los Pecos

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

A rare morning rain coming in from the west, combined with a partly-cloudy sunrise brought us a beautiful sight this monsoon season.

A full arc rainbow over Los Pecos, here seen on the western sky, over the new road.

Here it arcs down and seems to rest behind the house.

Here is one limb over Los Pecos Loop.

You can see the beginnings of

a double rainbow above and to the right.

I couldn't seem to find the pot of gold, though, until I realized that owning a house in this beautiful place is all the wealth we need.