It's Dry, It's Spiky, It's....

The Desert Botanical Gardens!

I was able to chaperone Lizzie's Field Trip with her class this morning.

Among the exiting things that happened:

1. Miss L was a drop pad for a purple-pooping bird. The guide said this was the first time that had ever happened.


2. Our guide also told us that we would probably see ground squirrels, hummingbirds, lizards, butterflies, but not snakes.

3. A large King Snake (constrictor) was slithering under the bridge where our class was standing.


4. In the Butterfly Pavilion, a butterfly mistook Lizzie's shorts for real flowers and landed right on her bum. MooHaHa! Our plan worked!





5. We learned how long a saguaro cactus lives (200 years!), the difference between a tortoise and a turtle (a tortoise sinks, a turtle swims), and all about the life cycle of a Century Plant (it only lives about 80 years, & is commonly confused with aloe vera).

2. We also learned that Phoenix gets less than 10 inches of usable rain every year. Some plants get so dry, they look like this:


6. And we got to see the first blooms of our state flower: The Saguaro Cactus Flower.


Hooray for Desert Plants!