October 2018 was the wettest in central Arizona history in about 150 years of records. October 2019 was tied for the driest. Zero precipitation. Nonetheless, life goes on. A number of plants are in flower now into November. One of the beneficiaries of last October's rains is turpentine bush. It flowered in profusion this year, while last fall - remember, the wettest recorded - it took the year off. There is a reason for this: flowering occurs on new growth from the previous spring. Spring 2018 was one of the driest on record and there was very little to no new growth that year. That was reflected in the absence of turpentine bush flowers in the fall of last year. Partially as a result of the tremendous moisture last fall, combined with a moderate spring rain regime, turpentine bushes produced a good crop of new growth in spring 2019, leading to a good flowering season this fall.
Turpentine bush is an important plant to two groups of animals: local and migratory winged insects, and seed-eating birds. The plant can cover wide swaths of ground in the Arizona Upland and interior chaparral communities. It's a productive nectar plant, and the flowers produce numerous small achenes - tiny sunflower seed-like fruit - that feed the local and migrating finches.
Durned if I can determine a species on this one.
Species ID presumed based on range and this document listing it as the sole Neotoma species in the preserve
Host Cylindropuntia leptocaulis
Dry, spiny fruit typical for the species
Narrow leaves, light-colored stems
None seen in flower today
Remant spring ephemeral
Host Larrea tridentata
Out of season flowering relatively common locally
Some cyathia with white glands
Late-season flowers
Late-season flowers
Prickles on fruit with apical hooks
Prickles on fruit with apical hooks
Late-season flower
Pappus lacking bristles at proximal end
Badly backlit - pushed the exposure
In flower - anthers and stigma present
Fruit fertilized in early spring beginning to swell
Some evidence of introgression with O. engelmannii - glochids on rim of pads, spines white, spines on some lower areoles. Pads small and plant low-spreading.
Comments
Thanks for posting this, it is a good read. The turpentine bush's flowering schedule is a fortunate twist;. They have been covered with insects each time I have encountered them this fall, and they are generally one of the few things in flower right now (at least flowering in profusion).
Interesting discussion. Thanks for posting!
Very cool! I didn't realize there was such a lag time for growth/flowering.
Thanks, Marissa - there's another cool "lag time" story in the desert mistletoe: female flowers fertilized in January/February this year are just now beginning to swell and ripen. The fruit are good winter bird chow.
Love the post, thanks Steve
Thank you for the great post. It reminded me of Joseph Wood Krutch's book, The Desert Year--a great read. He said, "In nature, one never sees a thing for the first time until one has seen it for the fiftieth. It never means much until it has become part of some general configuration, until it has become not a 'view' or a 'sight' but an integrated world of which one is a part; until one is part of what the biologist would call part of a biota" (p. 4). Your post went beyond an "observation" to integrating us all into the biota.
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