A Chance for Natural Observation

Our visit to the Desert Botanical Garden had a tremendous impact on my interest in the natural desert.  Fortunately, immediately after our S-STEM visit to Desert Botanical Garden on Friday, April 12,  I had the opportunity to spend the weekend camping, – Cub Scout Family Camp - and I was able to observe the plants of the Sonoran Desert with a new knowledge and understanding that I have not had on previous camping trips.

I found myself looking at the landscape with a new (and I hope improved) eye. I noticed the types, the sizes, the colors and the spacing of plants that grew wild as we hiked along trails. I observed the gradual changes that occurred as we ascended to higher elevations, and I took particular note of the layout of the various plant species, many of which Ainsley and I have been working with in the lab throughout this semester.

For example, the open community structure of the creosote bush strongly suggests some form of allelopathic properties. I thought back to my lab notebook and remembered my little creosote seeds all tucked away in their parafilmed Petri dishes that never even germinated. I wondered what happens out here in nature that allows them to germinate and thrive, but at such a distance from one another.

I also witnessed a terrific amount of the insidious buffelgrass that we learned about at Desert Botanical Garden. If I hadn’t known any better I would have thought how nicely these shrubby grasses fit into the desert landscape of the Sonoran. But, I do know better and I found myself almost angry at the numbers of plants growing particularly heavy along the roadways and rough trails. Even through my resentment I was fascinated by the realization that buffelgrass clearly displays strong allelopathic properties. Just by observation, it appears to not only force out the native plants by strangulation, but also by inhibiting the growth of native plants within a wide radius.

Next week I hope to have some definitive results from the allelopathy work that Ainsley and I have been doing this semester. However, I thought that it was important to acknowledge the motivation that I gained from having first visited the Desert Botanical Garden and then having the opportunity to experience first-hand the wonders of the plant world in the lower Sonoran Desert.

(This in my friend Vinny, he is a wonderful little man who is ridiculously curious and funny!)