Portraits of Wildflowers

What would a trip to the desert west be if I didn’t show you at least a few pictures of ocotillo, Fouquieria splendens? AI describes it as “a unique, spiny desert shrub common in the Southwestern US and Mexico, known for its tall, whip-like stems that burst with small green leaves and bright red flowers after rain, resembling a ‘little torch’. Not a cactus, it’s an adaptation expert, growing in deserts like the Sonoran and Chihuahuan, providing nectar for pollinators and used by people for living fences, medicine, and food/drink.”

The opening photo comes from east of Phoenix on October 22nd. Notice at the bottom of the picture how a cholla cactus flanks the ocotillo on the right and a paloverde tree on the left. The more abstract portrait below, which again takes advantage of clouds, is from Joshua Tree National Park the previous day.

Below, the closest look at ocotillo flowers came in Marana, Arizona, on October 23rd. (I wondered whether the name was originally Maraña, a Spanish word that means ‘thicket, tangle.’ The Discover Marana website offers that as a possibility: “The name Marana may come from the Spanish ‘maraña”, meaning ‘thicket or bush.’” AI says more firmly: “Marana, Arizona, got its name from railroad workers who named the area ‘Marana,’ a Spanish word meaning ‘thicket’ or ‘tangle,’ because they had to cut through dense brush (mesquite) to lay the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks in the late 1800s. The name, derived from maraña, stuck despite an earlier attempt to call it Postvale, and was officially adopted for the post office in the 1920s.”)

© 2026 Steven Schwartzman