Yellow Superbloom

Photo taken in 2012, just off Picture Rocks Road, inside Saguaro National Park, looking east. The mountains in the foreground are part of the Tucson... more

by Pat Goltz

Title

Yellow Superbloom

Artist

Pat Goltz

Medium

Photograph

Description

Photo taken in 2012, just off Picture Rocks Road, inside Saguaro National Park, looking east. The mountains in the foreground are part of the Tucson Mountains. The distant mountains are the Catalina Mountains. The yellow flowers in the foreground are Gordon's Bladderpod, Lesquerella gordonii. Bladderpod is so named because the seed pod looks like a bladder.

The cactus in the foreground is Engelmann's Prickly Pear: Opuntia engelmannii. The tall cacti in the distance are saguaros, Carnegiea gigantea. The trees are actually chaparral bushes, Larrea tridentata.

Young prickly pear pads are sliced and boiled in 3 waters (boil once in salt water, then change the water 2 times, boiling again) and served as nopalitos (which are a favorite treat for me, mixed with beef chili), and the fruit juice is used to make cactus jelly. I like the fruit juice straight and fresh. Slice a pad lengthwise and use as a poultice for insect stings; very effective. Stickers are removed, of course, including the glochids. Every plant discovered has a scientific name called a binomial. It is the genus and species name. If there is more than one name, they are called "synonyms". Prickly pear has 150 synonyms, and grows all over the world. In Israel, they are called "sabra" and a native-born Jewish Israeli is called a "sabra".

Chaparral is medicinal.

Saguaro fruit is also edible and very delicious. The Tohono O'odham (Native American nation) harvest it on a ceremonial day in early July.

Uploaded

March 24th, 2024