BLUE DICKS (DESERT HYACINTH)  
(Dichelostemma capitatum) 
           LILIACEAE (lily)

DESERT FIVE-SPOT
 My personal encounter with this western diamondback rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, is one I shall never forget. Upon being disturbed, it rattled ominously while tena-ciously holding its ground, fearlessly raised its head, and never took its penetrating gaze from me during its retreat.  
   An ambush predator, it houses heat-sensing pits within its face that enables it to detect and locate its warm-blooded prey. Remarkably, these sensors can detect the warmth of a candle 30 ft away.
    I witnessed a rattlesnake, living near my home and  about 4.5 ft. long, venenate an adult rabbit. It swallowed it com-pletely—creating a massive bugle in its body. The serpent ever-so-slowly meandered to a shrub for shade, to rest, and digest slowly its prey.  Such a large meal will sustain this reptile for many weeks.

WESTERN DIAMONDBACK RATTLESNAKE

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN LEARNING ABOUT & ENJOYING 
SONORAN, ANZA-BORREGO, OR COLORADO DESERTS:
Plants      Insects                Facts
Flowers   Birds                   Natural History
Cacti       Snakes                Ecology
Trees      Tortoises            Pictures
Shrubs    Toads                  Field Guides
Flora       Frogs                  Books
Wildflowers        Spiders              Hiking
Mammals           Hummingbirds   Biking
     THEN  THIS  BOOK  IS  A WORTHWHILE  PURCHASE! 













Copyright 2011: Sonoran Desert Life | Sonoran Desert Animals. All Rights Reserved.

    
THE OPENING PAGE OF THE BOOK
     The Sonoran Desert is a vast, arid region covering some 120,000 square miles, most of it located in southwestern Arizona and southeastern California as well as Sonora and Baja California in Mexico. It is the hottest of our North American deserts, and, in places, one of the wettest deserts in the world. It can receive 20 inches of precipitation each year, but at the other extreme, some regions of the Lower Colorado River Valley (map, p. 9) obtain only 2 inches. An annual precipitation of 3-16 inches is a reasonable estimate for the overall Sonoran Desert. Forest service data compiled over the past 45 years, gave  the  average precipitation for the Arizona Upland Subdivision at 14.7 ± 2 inches/year.  The high annual level of precipitation experienced over much of the Sonoran Desert, coupled with a two seasonal distribution pattern, has resulted in the greatest plant diversity of any desert on Earth. Plant inventories record at least 2,500 species of flowering plants. 
    The bulk of the annual rainfall is delivered either in the winter months (December through March) or as part of summer monsoons (July through September). Summer rains, generally deposited by powerful storm cells, and localized often in narrowly delineated areas, tend to be short lived. They are far more torrential than those of winter with crackling lightning bolts that illuminate the sky and violent thunderstorms with potentially destructive winds and occasionally hail.  Much of the water runs over bajadas and into arroyos.
    Winter rains, moving as broad frontal systems, nourish a much broader area. They can last for days, providing a sustained precipitation that penetrates deeply into the soil. Such deep percolation is a principle contributor to the lushness of Sonoran Desert vegetation.  
    When autumn and winter rains are adequate in amount and properly distributed throughout these seasons, the resulting spring floral display is nothing less than spectacular. Dominated by annuals and non-woody, herbaceous perennials, the landscape fill with a vast sea of color that rivals a desert rainbow. 

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