Rostrata sunrise

I snapped this not very flattering shot of my garden at sunrise this morning with my iPhone.

Look how parched the earth is, this is the worst time of the year for plants around here. 

The aloes are sunbeaten and blanched, the oranges crying out for moisture.

We do water, what we can afford to water anyway, but it is hard for anything to look good in September, especially with this insufferable heat. 

Won't even show you my picture.

If the hurricane stays on course we might see some rain tomorrow or Saturday but I am not counting on it.

After over four decades in the hood I know that seasons eventually change and we will all survive, the resilient garden will look beautiful once again in the spring.

In my neck of the woods, things have to endure. High desert tough or perish. That is our secret, magic superpower.

The plant in the foreground is my yucca rostrata, also known as a beaked yucca.

The species is native to Texas, Chihuahua and Coahuila. From the area around El Paso del norte, where I spent a lot of my own youth.

Do you notice the interesting geometric shape of its leaves, a circle bisected at an angle by a burst of fresh foliage? 

It had its second flower stalk last year, a bloom of splendor and magnificence. I cut the thick stalk back as close as I could to the trunk.

I wondered what would happen? Would it get a double beak, as occasionally occurs, or would it revert back to the round, original shape? 

Or would it mutate into something altogether different?

It appears that it is going to get round again. Eventually. It has taken over a year to get this far. 

Is this tendency to revert back to the mean another function of apical dominance? 

I am not sure, out of my pay grade. I do know that this is one of the loveliest of yuccas.

To endurance... lift a cup.