I don't think it's possible to go through a single neighborhood or freeway in Phoenix without cruising by these brilliantly colored red and orange plants. I've seen them all my life, but when the flowers start bursting open it still makes me stop and stare. This plant of mine had a visitor. I've always had a fondness for the praying mantis, even though they are pretty brutal little predators. Maybe it's their likeness to what I picture as otherworldly/alien creatures.
Aloe Vera Spiral, Nature's Geometry
This prickly fellow aided in many-a-sunburn after desert bike romps and summer adventures spent splashing around in the irrigation pumps. The cool, slick, goose bump evoking sensation on my beet red skin still brings me back to my days in the desert. Thankfully I don't have to use this much anymore since I'm much more conscientious about the application of sun block.
Fishhook Barrel Cactus = Menacing Desert Pineapples
When I was a kid, my siblings and I used to pull the cactus fruit off of these cacti and eat them. We were slightly reckless, but the slimy, scarcely sweet innards and glossy black seeds were worth a few pricks to the fingers. Or maybe it was just the novelty of gingerly plucking our prize from sturdy fishhook barbs.
