Desert Botanical Garden, again

A return visit to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix

I made a Sunday morning visit to our world-class desert plant museum and education center. With wildflower season peaking in the local deserts, it was an opportunity to see spectacular blooms of a wider variety of other plants, succulents and cacti.  The star blooms seemed to be on the palo verde, which is Arizona's state tree.  Crisp, blue skies were a beautiful background for their yellow blossoms.  And it was the first time I was able to visit the brand new butterfly pavilion, exhibiting hundreds of live native species.

An explosion of prickly pear cactus blooms.

Blooms on a type of hedgehog cactus.

Palo verde tree and its blooms. Its green bark helps you quickly identify the tree when it's not blooming.

Palo verde blooms against the blue sky.

Additional blooms.

While Washington, DC's cherry trees are blooming pink right now, AZ's palo verde trees are blooming yellow. This shot continues the comparison, with a tall saguaro substituting for the Washington Monument.

Many native species are flying around in the butterfly exhibit, like this zebra longwing.

Monarchs are part of the butterfly exhibit, but this shot was taken outside, in the garden.  He's part of a tracking program, to which I emailed my picture and sighting details.  I look forward to hearing about his story.

At the garden's Center for Desert Living they exhibit herbs, vegetables and fruits that are grown in the sunny and hot climate. Oranges make up one of the big "C's" that Arizona is know for - Citrus, Climate, Copper, Cotton, Cattle and Construction.

In the same area nopales are growing. You'll also find these on the menu in some authentic Mexican restaurants.

Ocotillo cacti fill our desert landscape, but their woody branches are also used to construct fences.  After some time, they will often sprout leaves again in their new function.

With warmer temperatures, lizards and snakes become more visible in the garden.

Another lizard.

One of the most photographed cacti in the park is this crested saguaro. There's no agreement on exactly why the arms merge this way. Theories include lightning strikes and freeze damage, two quite opposite extremes.

The beauty of a prickly pear cactus variety. 

Cluster of tiny cacti with even tinier flowers.

Cholla cacti blooms.

Prickly pear bloom, like the flame of one burning candle left to extinguish.

When I go to the garden with friends, I don't have the solitary time you need to really get good bird shots.  But I was able to snag a shot of this male phainopepla through some palo verde blooms.