Grass

I know, you probably think: "grass? in the desert?" Well, here in the Arizona desert there is quite a bit of it in the summer, thanks to our monsoons. The grasses are all setting seed now in the late summer and on my morning walk I find more than a dozen varieties. Talk about diversity! I like the native grama varieties (Bouteloua species) best as they have beautiful seed heads. This is sideoats grama.

Before the Sulphur Springs valley was grazed by cattle, grasses predominated the landscape. Now there is a lot of scrubby mesquite (prosopis velutina). Here are Emma and Shawna running through the grass.