Plant Life in Arizona Mountains

     This fall, we took a trip to the White Mountains in Arizona.  (see other posts from this time) For those of you not familiar with the many micro-climates across the state, these pictures might surprise you.

     One venture was to the Little Colorado River, just outside Springerville. It was wet enough there to see poison ivy, a rarity in the southwest.  The autumnal colors were so spectacular, even the poison ivy had fall colors!  

    Another loop took us through forest roads and to Big Lake.  It was in this area that the one bluebell was photographed.  Interesting what is still blooming when the snap of real cold has triggered foliage change on other plants and trees.

     Biblical poetry is woven throughout, related to the photos.

Enjoy!

 Currant bushes and foliage. These grow well in the middle elevations of the southwest (4000-5000'). Above, shown with some fruit. Below, shown with brighter foliage in other places along the Little Colorado.

Poison ivy with some of that currant foliage and some green foliage from wild roses (see below)

"He has made everything beautiful in its time"  Ecclesiastes 3:11a  Even the poison ivy is decked out for fall.  Here it is shown with a tree/shrub, still green, that seems to be in the dogwood family.

Something from the dogwood family?  Notice the veins running near lengthwise, father than out to the "sides" of the leaves.  Hard to place exactly, due to purple berries, but there are western dogwood varieties.

A lot of the berries and fruit on these plants is a great reminder of a thought found in the Book of James:  Be patient, then, brothers [and sisters], until the Lord's coming.  See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early [spring] and the late [autumnal] rains.  James 5:7

Wild roses and rose hips, the name for rose "fruit."  Roses are in the same family as cherries, apples, etc.   In mid to the start of high elevations of the southwest, especially where it's wetter, wild roses grow in beauty.  They look a lot like what are called "old roses", the first domestic forms of roses.

Thistles.  Beautiful, but check out the sharp spikes on the leaves.  A real reminder of when God cursed the earth because of humans' first sin, in Genesis 3:18:  "Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, yet you shall eat the plants of the field."  Fun fact-- artichokes are related to thistles, and their plants look like giant thistles!  (see also my much earlier posting by Martin Luther on his thoughts on the original creation, the curse, and the new creation.  he speaks of thistles)

 

Late bluebell, at Big Lake