The thrill is the hunt

After stumbling upon a pair of Lycium macrodon plants yesterday at the Reach 11 Recreation Area in the City of Phoenix, I was re-invigorated to search for a plant that I futilely hunted 8 or 10 years ago. This specimen of L. macrodon was collected in 1965 by the eminent Arizona botanist Elinor Lehto along "Scottsdale Road, 2 miles North of Bell Road."
Knowing that this area is Arizona state trust land, I lamented that I had not renewed my Arizona State Land Recreation Permit recently. In the past, the permit was only available by traveling to the state land department on West Adams just east of the state capitol. In the early days of the permit process, the office to which one applied was downstairs in the basement in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door reading "Beware of the Leopard." In more recent years it was possible to apply by printing out a form and mailing it in with a check.
But now we have entered the electronic age and I secured a permit within minutes by filling out this form and paying the permit fee and a one dollar surcharge. I printed out pdf's of the recreational permit and the dashboard vehicle permit and went to bed confident that I could continue the search instanter.
My search today also proved futile, but it was a fine adventure nonetheless. At that elevation the bellyflower annuals are flowering and fruiting moreso than where I live. It also demonstrated to me that in general people are awful. The quantity of flotsam and jetsam of modern life that have been deposited in piles or broadcast across the landscape was remarkable. It reminded me of the line from Yente in Fiddler on the Roof: "If god lived on earth, people would break his windows."

Posted on February 19, 2020 04:30 AM by stevejones