Last weekend I stopped by the Santa Rosa mountains visitor center in Palm Desert, CA. It is at the base of highway 74 and is free to the public. You can wander around the gardens and desert landscape there and see quail and other birds. They provide a water hole for desert animals also. I like the smoke trees there. Did you know that smoke trees will ONLY grow when their seeds are scratched during a desert flood? Yes. So, if you see smoke trees in the desert, you know you are in a flood zone. The Living Desert has many of them also and they were last flooded in 1976. Also, some smoke trees have mistletoe in them. The phainopepola (a large black bird) eats the mistletoe seeds and spreads them to other trees. If you click on the photo and enlarge it, you can see the mistletoe in the smoke tree. For other terrific views, please visit Scenic Sunday at: http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/
6 comments:
This is really interesting! Thanks for sharing it to us and that's a great shot also.
Sounds (and looks) like a beautiful place to visit <3
Greetings,
Just loved looking at your Smoke Trees. I'm not sure if I could see the Mistletoe up there in the branches. I have an article about Mistletoe and Christmas flowers. Hope you can drop by.
So interesting! I'd love to visit some time. Beautiful photo.
I used to live near Palm Desert and the plant life is indeed beautiful and the valley very scenic. Your photo makes me want to visit this area again.
great shot! I love the place, nice view..
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