and then I saw this flower

I'm usually the one saying "Oh no we should really clean the kitchen this weekend". So even though it was a really cool, wet spring, which means a bumper year for desert wildflowers, I was exceptionally slow to warm up to the idea. Of course I did, eventually, and then in my customary fashion created a series of completely artificial and absurd tasks for myself ... I want a picture of this kind of flower. Okay, now this kind. A close-up. A landscape. Standing on one leg ...

Now the procedure is to take a close-up, a bigger shot of the plant so I can see its habits and structure, and maybe remind myself just where we were, and then when back at home try and match it up with one of the wildflower books and leaflets, or, as a last resort, online (cheating, cos it's too easy.)

And this was the first one that I was struck by, on the way out to Death Valley in April with a bran new camera in my lap. (It's a white Sony α5000. Is nice, like sputnik.) The hilarious part is that it's one of the most common wildflowers (this year, anyway) in these parts ... we've since seen fields of it in Southern Nevada, Mojave, Arizona, Utah. But when I first saw it, I didn't even know its name, and it was only just coming into flower here and there. (A bit like my knowledge of desert flowers, really, which is still only coming into flower here and there.)

On Black Canyon Rd, Mojave Nat'l Preserve

Desert globemallow. (Sphaeralcea ambigua - urk, really?) is the orange jewel broadcast on the side of highways, freeways, byways in late spring and early summer. It seems to like a bit more elevation or moisture than creosote, from what I've seen. It's not noticeably scented. The leaves are almost rough to the touch. They look quite like pelargonium leaves and have the same fleshiness to them.

The flowers are vaguely like poppies.

I don't know that it's specifically good for anything other than being lovely. (Well, I looked it up and you can use it like other mallows and that was fantastic because I found this site while doing that, which also reminded me I need to get out my Art Stix and notebook and draw flowers again.)

But it's so good at being lovely, and anyway I'm no herbalist, so the mucilaginous qualities of its roots are probably going to remain undisturbed by me for now. (Famous last words, right?)

Some other Anglo names are apricot mallow, desert mallow, globe-mallow, sore-eye poppy.