Article by Ben Parry-Lemon and Aya Pickett, Tucson Audubon Society . Thanks to the Tucson Audubon Society for sharing this article with our audience and for driving Tucson’s stinknet efforts forward. A new threat to the Sonoran Desert What is that small yellow flowering plant? It is all over the roadsides and blooms along with the…
Tag: sonoran desert
Opo: Olneya tesota
This post is part four of an ongoing series exploring the science and ethnobotany of plants found throughout the Sonoran Desert region. The first four plants in this series are the Mexican trees Taxodium mucronatum (ahuehuete/Montezuma cypress), Randia echinocarpa (papache/papachi), Forchhammeria watsonii (jito), and Olneya tesota (opo/ironwood). For each plant, we are sharing a blog…
Community, Collaboration, and Conservation at the Desert Museum
As we wrap up another year and orient toward a new season, we are happy to share major highlights and exciting developments from our diverse range of conservation projects here at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It’s been a year packed with community partnerships, collaborative conservation initiatives, and innovative research. Invasive Species and Save Our Saguaros Month ‘Tis the season … to Save…
El Jito: Forchhammeria watsonii
This post is part three of an ongoing series exploring the science and ethnobotany of plants found throughout the Sonoran Desert region. The first four plants in this series are the Mexican trees Taxodium mucronatum (ahuehuete/Montezuma cypress), Randia echinocarpa (papache/papachi), Forchhammeria watsonii (jito), and Olneya tesota (opo/ironwood). For each plant, we are sharing a blog…
Papachi: Randia echinocarpa
This post is part two of an ongoing series exploring the science and ethnobotany of plants found throughout the Sonoran Desert region. The first four plants in this series are the Mexican trees Taxodium mucronatum (ahuehuete/Montezuma cypress), Randia echinocarpa (papache/papachi), Forchhammeria watsonii (jito), and Olneya tesota (opo/ironwood). For each plant, we are sharing a blog…
Ahuehuete: Taxodium mucronatum
This post is part one of an ongoing series exploring the science and ethnobotany of plants found throughout the Sonoran Desert region. The first four plants in this series are the Mexican trees Taxodium mucronatum (ahuehuete/Montezuma cypress), Randia echinocarpa (papache/papachi), Forchhammeria watsonii (jito), and Olneya tesota (opo/ironwood). For each plant, we are sharing a blog…
Mushrooms of the Tucson Basin
By Jack Dash The Sonoran Desert is known for its strange and wonderful organisms like giant saguaro cacti, resilient desert tortoises, scavenging vultures, venomous Gila monsters and rattlesnakes, and so many more. But did you know the desert is also home to a variety of fungi? In fact, you’ll find fungi everywhere, from deserts to…
Are saguaros dying in Arizona?
By Jack Dash There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about a mass saguaro collapse caused by heat and drought. This claim, and the media storm around it, requires a bit of unpacking. The story begins with the fantastic research team at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix who have been…
Volunteers Protect The Places We Love
Volunteers all around the Tucson Basin regularly pull buffelgrass, a sometimes strenuous but incredibly rewarding activity. As a result of their efforts, many thriving acres of wild, native desert surround Tucson. Without the consistent work of these dedicated volunteers, buffelgrass, an invasive grass that harms the native flora and fauna of the Sonoran Desert, would…
Saving Arizona’s Valuable Groundwater
By Denise Meeks Rather than using Arizona’s valuable groundwater for irrigation, the Desert Museum keeps its flora thriving by recycling its wastewater, about 3,000,000 gallons annually. The water, used by our visitors and in our deer and bighorn sheep enclosures, begins its recycling adventure by flowing through sewer pipes into clarification tanks, and ends its…
Desert Diaries 