Mohave Desert Flora and Fauna

Wherein Moominmama further explores the flora, fauna and surprises of the Mohave Desert...

Having moved north from Joshua Tree National Park, Moominmama is still in the Mohave desert, still seeing Joshua trees, yucca and cactus. But the creosote bushes are less common, replaced by sagebrush and rabbit brush as I move to a higher elevation in the Mohave National Preserve. 

The rhyolitic rocks and tuff (compressed ash) at Hole in the Wall are still sculpted by erosion but very differently from the monzogranite of Joshua Tree, which looks nothing like the granite of the Northeast! Monzogranite is sand-colored, rough to the touch and erodes into a pebbly sand.

Contrary to expectation, these deserts are far from desolate. Moominmama has enjoyed climbing through these rocks (the hole in the wall!) and catching glimpses of jackrabbits in the valleys. Their enormous ears are used not just for hearing but to help cool their bodies in the heat. 

Not that there's been much heat here lately.  Hole in the Wall got hit with snow yesterday! But no luck getting a photo of a jackrabbit. At least this lizard stayed put long enough for me to get a shot!

Any type of moisture is valuable here, and this appears to be a winter and spring where there's more precipitation in the Mohave than the Sonoran desert. Everything looks healthier in the Mohave, where the Joshua trees are sending out their enormous blooms.

These blooms will now be visited by a species of Yucca moth, which is the sole pollinator for Joshua trees. The moths lay their larvae inside the blooms, which provide the younglings their initial food source, while the parents transport pollen from tree to tree. 

Scientists are somewhat concerned that this exclusive relationship poses a threat to both moth and tree since they are entirely reliant one on the other. If either is struck by widespread disease, what happens to the other? Luckily, the Joshua trees have another trick up their sleeve, which is cloning.

In an area of the Mohave Desert struck by fire, this old Joshua tree has sent out new stems from its underground root. With tallest of these babies just above my knee, it must be many years old already since the trees grow an average of an inch and a half per year.  A 50-foot tree, and there are some, can be almost 400 years old!

Other plants are also flowering. I'm not sure what this is but it was lovely to come across several of these flowers on a hike. They were located near a rock containing petroglyphs carved by the Mohave people. 

It may be hard to imagine, but the desert actually has quite a few food sources. Mesquite trees are comman throughout the Sonoran and Mohave deserts, and they grow pods with seeds. When dried, the pods can be ground into a flour that has a slight honey taste. 

At higher elevations, piñon pines provide fatty pine nuts. And most of the flowering cactuses, including Joshua trees, have blooms and fruits that are edible. That includes plants like this beavertail cactus below about to flower. Unlike prickly pear, it has little nubs instead of sharp barbs. Apparently, you can eat the fruits and flowers as well as roast the lobes themselves. The Joshua tree fruits are reportedly starchy and not that tasty.

In addition, agave plants have enormous roots that can be roasted in pits and consumed. And then there are the jackrabbits, if you can catch one! 

There are several tribes that have made the Mohave desert area their home, including the Cahuilla, Chemehuevi (related to the Paiute) and Mohave.

Moominmama became interested in the Mohave people after reading a book about a teenager, Olive Oatman, who was captured while on a wagon train of rebel Mormons. After a very difficult year with her initial captors, she was traded to a group of the Mohave. 

The descriptions of Mohave life that she later shared when "rescued" suggest the Mohave had a compassionate and open culture, gentle with their children and placing far fewer restrictions on women. She would speak of them fondly for the rest of her life.

It's not at all clear to me that she was better off once she was forced to return. She became famous, placed on a lecture circuit by those who took her in, and was interviewed and written about. See, she'd been tattooed on the face in the Mohave style, something she must have chosen believing she'd remain with the tribe. But it made her a curiosity in western culture. And it's largely why we know her story today.

Out here in the Mohave National Preserve, there is so much room to breathe and a vast landscape of open plains and piles of towering volcanic and limestone rocks. Joshua Tree National Park seems like a pale imitation to be honest, though it has more maintained trails. 

One of the joys of these wide open spaces is the ability to track the weather. You can see it coming (or going) all the way to the horizon -- like in this photo below. Moominmama heads next to yet another part of the Mohave, this one with sandstone. It truly is a diverse land with many surprises!