CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF REGION 29 



are, they pass through without injury to either bean or 

 goat and are thus scattered in many fertile spots along 

 the cliffs. This fact explains the abundance of the bean 

 bushes in the mouths of caves, where the goats com- 

 monly take refuge from the storms. 



One of the numerous bean bushes, or shrubby le- 

 gumes, is the beautiful little Dalea, or Paroselaformosa, 

 protected, not by thorns, but by numerous glands of a 

 rank-smelling secretion as effective as the musk of a 

 skunk. Even the goats do not eat it. In April it 

 fairly glows with tufts of small, rich purple and yellow 

 flowers set in a mass of silvery filaments, a combination 

 that tempts one to examine closely and admire 

 enthusiastically. 



Allthorn, crown of thorns or crucifixion plant, next 

 to cactus the spiniest thing on the desert, grows as a 

 dense shrub over the valley and on warm slopes of the 

 ridges up to and above the cave. Its leafless, green- 

 barked branches and stout thorns defy man and beast, 

 except for the cactus wrens, thrashers, and wood rats, 

 which have made a truce with its dagger points and 

 claim its protection for nests and houses. Its incon- 

 spicuous, little white flowers and black berries come 

 only when there is enough rain to produce them, and 

 for most of the year the naked thorns and stems stand 

 at arms. 



Another leafless plant of the desert is the so-called 

 popotillo, joint fir, or Mormon tea, a low graceful shrub 

 of slender green branches, rush-like in appearance, the 

 green bark of the stems functioning in place of leaves. 

 As it has no spines, or only mildly spinescent tips, to its 



