The Beauty of the Night in Baja

It's amazing to come home at night to a stunning Baja sunset. In Todos Santos, it's a bit cooler here than in other places in part due to the fact that the town is on the coast.  At night, the breezes make it all the more amazing.

Sunset view in Todos Santos. From this vantage, you can see the Pacific Ocean. 

Recently, two of my colleagues came home one night and saw a flower blooming on one of the cacti in the compound where we're staying. Given that I have a thing for native plants, they called over and asked about it. I knew the cactus was pitaya agria, but wasn't completely familiar with it and its blooming cycle. After consulting the internet and my trusty Baja California Plant Field Guide, I found more information: it blooms from July to September. It blooms only at night and each bloom lasts only for one night.

Pitaya agria. It only blooms at night. 

There are other blooms at this time of year. Chain-link cholla - also known as cholla pelona (rough translation: bald cholla) - also blooms at this time of year with a nice pink flower.

Chain-link cholla has beautiful pink blooms. It gets its name from the chain link appearance of its stems.  

The yuca vine - or yellow morning glory - is a vine that blooms mightily around this time of year and you can spot it easily along the highway; in fact, it blooms everywhere. It's hard to miss! Like any good vine, it can cover a cactus or other plant without much effort but who cares when the blooms are so bright and cheery? I have my own photo, but it doesn't do the bloom justice. The Arizona-Sonoran Desert Digital Library has a beautiful photo of the vine in bloom.

This photo doesn't do the yuca vine any justice. 

As I look around at much of the formal landscaping I'm seeing here, I am concerned that Baja will go the way of many urban areas in the United States which have cast away their natives for the ease of non-natives. Not only are these plants beautiful, but they support wildlife. The non-natives don't necessarily do that.

For a strong argument in defense of natives, read Doug Tallamy's book Bringing Nature Home. A professor of entomology (the study of insects) and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware, he looks at study after study and reminds us that native plants support native wildlife. If we remove these native landscapes, we also remove the much of the wildlife. And there are other repercussions.

But enough of my native plant zealotry for one posting. Enjoy the photos and the beauty of the Baja Peninsula.