milewski's Favorites

Short, only about 1 to 1.25 meters tall, and about 1.5 meters wide. Lacking any clear, developed basal burl, but with that burlescent bark at the base of the (visible/aboveground) trunk, and many of the uprooted and dead plants at this site had super clear, globe-shaped, craggily-surfaced basal burls. Leaves isofacial (same on both sides), and quite glaucous-white. Stems with "medium length" glandular hairs. Nascent inflorescence bracts leaf-like. Fruits depressed (wider than tall), with glabrous and red surface, with some sweet mesocarp, and partially separable nutlets. Growing at the edge of a mechanically cleared firebreak on Sunset Ridge, San Gabriel Mountains foothills. Note that the last photo in this series was taken of the same plant shown in the other photos, but was just taken later in the day around sunset, since everything looked extra beautiful at that moment. See the old man Baldy (Mount San Antonio) in the background of some shots here. Coin used for scale is a US quarter dollar (¢25 piece), 24.26 mm, 0.955 inch in diameter.

The parrot was seen crawling very slowly over a dense hummock of grass along a trail beside the fence. it moved not by moving its legs, but by only using its toes, so it sort of floated across the grass without drawing attention to itself. Once past the hummock of grass it quickly disappeared underneath and appears a minute later some metres away and flew 25 or so metres before dropping into long grass and disappearing once again.

I saw this tamandua from a distance and decided to go for a closer look and to get pictures. When i got to within three meters, he spun around reared up on two legs and charged. I got my pictures, but backed up fast as the claws are formidable.