Centerpiece II: Cholla and Desert Bird of Paradise

This is the second of the works I’ll show at Unsettled Gallery. Another table-scape in the desert, this time with Cholla cactus blooms and the tropical looking Desert Bird of Paradise.

This spring we had 3 times our normal rainfall and the plants were loving it. For the first time since we moved to this house 5 years ago, the nearby arroyo was rimmed with blooming Cholla – big, bright fuscia blooms that lasted only a few days.

The Yellow or Desert Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia gilliesii) is supposedly a native of Argentina and Uruguay and I’m not quite sure how it got here.

It’s a shrubby bush with fern like foliage, a member of the legume family and quite drought tolerant. People use it extensively in landscaping because of its showy flowers with their bright yellow petals and long red stamens. There are a few of these beauties on the path we take into the arroyo and they always remind me of the Mimosa tree.

Of course I had to include a chile pepper even if it isn’t our own Hatch green chile.