Route: Sweetwater Trail - SAGU West
Started: 7:00am
Ended: 11:00am
Weather: clear, low humidity, minimal gusty. Temps started in the high 50s and ended in the 70s.
Distance: 6.8 miles
No critical invasive species found.
Scouts: Jenna Marvin
Notes: This was not strictly a botany expedition. I was hiking with a friend, so I did not give the attention as much as I would normally. The highlights of the hike were my first Regal Horned Lizard in many years and seeing the cactus blooming, such as staghorn cholla in a variety of colors from rust to fuchsia, Engelmann's prickly pear all lemony, and a few saguaros. The horny toad hopped across the trail, thrilling us, and then hung out under a jojoba allowing ample time to photograph. I also found a tiny prickly pear growing in the armpit of a saguaro. My old friends the trailing four-o'clocks (windmills) and the desert chicory were finally blooming too. Sadly, non-natives like filaree were out as well. What was remarkable, after this very sparse winter rain season, were the velvet mesquites saying, "What the heck! We have established roots and can take advantage of the very little rain that did land on the parched desert." That lush early-green of the mesquites was observable in all the drainages along the lower flanks of the Tucson Mountains. Where ever there was limestone peaking out from the rhyolite tuff, Ocotillos were in abundance and flying their red flags. A broad-tailed hummingbird trilled past us in one nice patch. Ash-throated flycatchers whistled at us, along with the songs of thrashers and gila woodpeckers. Possibly a Lucy's warbler and a few other shy birds who were too flitty and chose to remain silent.
