Mother Nature LIKES Yellow!

I have come to the definite conclusion that Mother Nature's favorite color is yellow! For every other color of flower you find, there are at least twenty more that are yellow. This is another low-growing little beauty called Golden Carpet (Gilmania luteola).

One of my wildflower books, Mojave Desert Wildflowers, says that "Golden Carpet is a rare plant restricted to barren alkaline slopes in Death Valley. It is a very localized plant and only grows in exceptionally wet years."

While you see clusters of mistletoe - some very large - all over the southwest, I had never seen a clump in bloom until I spotted these yellow blooms in a small shrub. They're hard to see, but the red balls on the bottom clump are last years fruit.

Just for some relief from all the yellow, here's a not very good picture of a Desert Five-Spot (Eremalche rotundifolia). My books say it's uncommon, but we saw lots of them on the road into the Death Valley National Park headquarters. I'll try to get a better picture when we go back next week. The petals can range from rose-pink to lilac, but the ones we saw were all this color.

You've seen this one before, but I realized re-reading my blog that the close-up didn't show the plant's shape that gives it the name of Turtleback (Psayhrotes ramosissima).

As I predicted in last night's blog, today was a quiet day. I washed a couple of loads of clothes and Forry ran into town for milk and to mail some letters. I talked with Grand daughter Kyra Anne -- and her mother -- on Skype. I read more of a rather strange story in a book called "Angelology" by Danielle Trussoni. I sorted through the big flat rate box of mail that we picked up at the post office yesterday. I fixed a steak and some sweet potatoes for supper and now we're watching the Mariners -- who are leading Detroit 11-2 in the top of the 8th!