Finding the Names.....

Today, I learned that the blooming tree with the fragrant hanging bell blossoms is a Linden.  Everyone in class was, "Oh, yeah, of course, that's a Linden.  The subtext was "Everybody knows THAT tree."  Newsflash:  If you are new to an area, and I mean from more than 500 miles away, then not only is the landscape different, but the flora is also different.  We don't have Linden trees in Texas.  I didn't see them in the East either, or if I did, I didn't recognize them because plant appearances change from season to season. 

A common thread running through all the locations I've been in is that most people don't have any clue what the names are of the plants and trees in their own backyards.  Yes, people recognize 'maple' and 'rose', but get much beyond those generics and when I ask, "What is that?" the answer is generally a shoulder shrug.  It was like that in Sun City with the cactus.  One of the best things about Sun City is that it is a 50 year old community specifically desert landscaped.  Now, the streets are stuffed with fabulous mature cactus which no one knows the names of.  My only defense was to do a study of cactus and educate myself. 

Book in hand, bottle of water in basket, helmet securely fastened, I rode my bike throughout Sun City trying to determine the names of the cactus I was seeing.  The best thing about Sun City bike riding is that it is FLAT.  I quickly discovered that I could also generalize about cactus:  barrell, pincushion, prickly pear, but the nuances within those catagories were what was interesting.  This is a barrell cactus, but it is also called a Senilis - a bastardized Latin form meaning 'old' referring to the white hair that hides the thorns. 

There's a whole genus of cactus, the centia, which have one common denominator - they are giant.  The Saguro is called The Monarch of the Desert, and is the most famous in this genus.  However, there are lots of other giant cactus, and no one knows their names.

 Prickly pear cactus are the most common cactus and certainly the most widespread, but other than the two weeks a year that they bloom, they are low growing menaces to feet and cattle.  However, there is one prickly pear of note:  The purple prickly pear.  It's still fairly low growing, and it's still a menace, but at least it's pretty all year round.  Perhaps because purple is my favorite color has something to do with my fascination for this plant.

In any other location cactus would mostly be dead boring, but they are the only spots of color in closely set together houses which are all some shade of brown.   Such a sad commentary on the imagination of the people of southern Arizona; would it kill them to paint their houses pastel shades instead of BROWN?  Then, each street could be it's own rainbow.  Instead, they must rely on cactus to colorize their existence.