SPRING AT THE GRAND CANON 99 



Tovar. h\ saline or alkaline flats the salty sage or Atriplex 

 prevails and there is such an area between Williams and El 

 Tovar where nothing else seems to grow. There are several 

 species of Atriplex but the most common is Atriplex canescens, 

 which has circular fruits with several wings surrounding the 

 seed. These often persist so that even in winter the species 

 can be identified. 



The odd reed-like shrubs that resemble clumps of Equisetum 

 are common from the top to the bottom of the canon. The 

 common name is Mormon or Brigham tea and the tea has a 

 great reputation as a blood purifier. These peculiar shrubs are 

 related to the pines and other conifers in having naked seeds. 

 Botanically they are known as Ephedra. The male plants are 

 covered at the joints with bunches of yellow stamens, while the 

 female plants have green seeds, two seeds to each cluster. At 

 the lower end of the canon a different species is found. The 

 deep green one along the rim is Ephedra viridis and the pale 

 green one is probably Ephedra antisyphilitica found only at 

 lower elevations. 



May and June are the months in which flowers are most 

 common along the rim of the canon. Then the indian paint 

 brush (Castilleja) , the pentstemons, the blue flax, woodland star 

 ( Lithophragma) , alum root (Heuchera), potentillas, mariposa 

 tulips, evening primroses, gilias, fritillarias, arenarias and many 

 more make the whole place a lovely garden of flowers. In 

 July and August summer rains occur and bring about a second 

 flowering of many of these shrubs and herbs, so that when these 

 are added to the regular fall flora, September will produce a 

 greater number of species in bloom than May or June, but the 

 flowers are not so gay in color nor so abundant. 



