Brian Kemble (Ruth Bancroft Garden), Ernst van Jaarsveld (Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden) Randy Baldwin (San Marcos Growers) Jeff Chemnick, Tim Gregory, Scott Calhoun and I tour the Tucson Area.
I finally have a little time to sit down and post. On Monday, a small group of us slipped away and took a little field trip to see some Agave. Randy planted the seed for the trip. He wanted to try and find the "Super Clone" of Agave parryi huachucensis. After an hour's drive, Randy spotted some large flower stalks in a distant field, and we pulled off the road, took a hike, and found the large population of Agave.
Next drive was to find Agave palmeri, which was common throughout the landscape. Brian and Scott narrowed down a location through conversation, of a Winery that Brian visited about ten years ago, where he had found a natural hybrid of Agave palmeri and Agave parryi huachucensis. We managed to find the Winery, and the grove manager told us of an Agave that was right in the middle of the Wine field. He said the owners had been bugging him to remove it for ten years, but he refused. Good thing, because this plant was the hybrid we were looking for. Really cool to see a natural hybrid. It was a really cool looking plant, and it had set quite a bit of seed, of which we collected some.
Next, we split up. Brian, Ernst, and I headed south, to the mountains near Nogales, where we found the tiny U.S. population of Agave parviflora. We also found Agave schottii.
We then found a sweet little canyon with a year round stream in it where a species of Graptopetalum occurs. We took a half day hike in a magical place. We didn't find the Graptopetalum, but wildlife was abundant. Native Chubs, Garter Snakes, Mud Turtles, Swifts..... really cool trip.
We made it To Tucson after a 13 hour tour just in time to meet up with Greg Starr for some dinner..... What an excellent trip.
I never take enough photo's, so hopefully some of the others will jump in and add some pics.
Allen
Southern Arizona
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