DESERT TRUMPET (Eridgonum inflatum, Torr. & Fr.). The 

 Desert Trumpet is so remarkable in its make-up that it may be 

 recognized at a glance, and to see it is to be interested in it 

 immediately. From a cluster of small heart-shaped leaves 

 one or more queer, glaucous, bluish-green, hollow stalks arise, 

 swollen out sometimes to the diameter of an inch or so, and 

 these are topped by an intricate net-work of slender branches 

 and branchlets, bearing a multitude of tiny yellowish flowers. 

 The plant grows from 1 to 3 feet tall, and is a desert dweller, 

 abundant on the Colorado and Mojave Deserts of California, 

 thence east to Utah, Arizona (Grand Canon region) and New 

 Mexico. 



The inflated stalks, swelling upward gradually like a musi- 

 cal horn, explain the popular designation Desert Trumpet. 

 Another name given in some localities is Pickles, the reason 

 for which Is not apparent, until one learns that the plant 

 (like its relative the Sheep Sorrel) is acid, and the inflated 

 stems when young and tender are eaten raw as pickles by some 

 desert folk. I have also heard it called Wild Asparagus from 

 a resemblance of the tangle of the blooming panicles to As- 

 paragus plants in flower, but this name is misleading. 



