It's winter and with all the winter rains we have been having, the grass and weed season is in full swing. There are thick patches of invasive grasses in many places, and the sticky and seed-spitting varieties of weeds are coming up all over. What makes a weed a weed? Grasses in this part of the world because they don't belong here. Plants that stick and hitch a ride on socks and dogs. Plants that when you touch them, they spit seeds a foot or more. (Watch out for your eyes.) Plants that I do not like so I am constantly pulling them up in the hope they will not go to seed in any unmanageable number.
There are some plants that in my first Sonoran years I considered weeds, but no more. I need to find the name of the one plant that has small fleshy leaves and, as the plant dries out with our dry spring seasons, its delicate, small bushy, lacey, umbrella frame turns reddish, sharing its hue with the bare tan and pink ground. I now classify it as a wildflower, along with brittle bush, seaside petunia, and desert senna. I recognize these plants as they sprout and never pull them.
So I am pulling weeds from various bare places along the gully hillside. I notice there are some oddly configured sprouts coming up. They seem different. There are plenty of identifiable weeds, so I ignore the unfamiliar ones. Thank goodness. As their brilliant green foliage matures, pretty yellow and orange flowers bloom. I realize that at least two species of wildflowers have sprouted from my packet. One of them I recognize. They are the orange flowers: Mexican or California poppies. I have seen entire hillsides and roadsides draped with their beautiful apricot color.
I hope my few flowers go to seed and multipy, but I think I should buy several more packets of Southwest wildflower seeds.
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