First of many

My sister and I are determined to climb our mountain every week to inventory the plants and flowers. And for me, butterflies too. So today was our first trip for the year. We spent five hours in our efforts. Now we're pretty crippled, but plan to go back up as soon as this upcoming cold front passes, in other words, Wednesday or Thursday. Very little is blooming yet, but there are some interesting plants ready to bloom any day. It's amazing how many interesting plants are up there. There are lots of patches of scrubby oaks that I had never seen before. None are much over four feet tall. I hope to get an ID on them soon. I guess I should have collected a leaf. My sister collected one, and she thinks it most closely resembles Emory Oak. That would be cool.

I really liked this little flower. It's been identified as Desert Anemone (Anemone tuberosa).

And here is a Cholla infested with parasitic Cochineal.

Lots of Desert Olive blooming too.

I'm totally overwhelmed right now with plants and flowers to ID, and it's only going to get worse as spring progresses. And next time I'm taking my Canon. Too hard to photograph butterflies with my Lumix, although the weight of the Canon is a difficult decision to make.