Dry, Continued Dry with a Chance of Dry

A consortium put together a release of a couple thousand acre-feet of water into the 90+ day dry Rio Grande middle reaches.  The thirsty sands absorbed so much water that it took several days to reach the Central Bridge.  I don't even know if the "flood" made it to the gauging station at Valle de Oro.  

Sept. 3 waiting for water at the Gail Ryba Bridge

Within a few days the river bed was dry again.  On the prowl for lunch I crossed the Rio from the Botanic Garden to the west side and the cottonwoods in the bosque showed serious trouble.  Some had completely brown, dry canopies.  I suspect those trees will not survive.  Just a one shot estimate:  I'd say we could lose 20% of our trees.  

Sept. 7 looking north from Tingley "Beach"

On a brighter side, the water lilies and lotus at the BioPark have been flourishing.  With shorter days, they are flowering less prolifically, but they are still putting out a few spectacular blooms.  

Water, Water Everywhere (not)

While running errands this afternoon, I ducked down to the Open Space access at the west end of Gabaldon Pl.  I continued on foot across the little Gail Ryba Bridge, which crosses the Albuquerque Lateral.  It was flowing bank to bank.  

From there a short but hot and sunny walk up the ramp beyond took me to a river overlook.  I had hoped to find water in the river bed or, if I was incredibly lucky, actually see its wave front coming down the channel.

As it turned out, I saw neither.  The Rio is still as dry as ever.  The USGS website reports 248 cfs at the Alameda bridge and 212 at Paseo del Norte.  At the Central bridge and at Valle de Oro the flow is zero.  Only at Isleta is there a trickle, 48 cfs.  I think that value is the water from the lateral, which is delivered to the Pueblo, since they have priority.  

Your Occasional Daily Hibiscus

The Hibiscus blooms have been off and on this season.  The 'Midnight Marvel' had a good first flush of flowers and then a pause.  Now it seems to be gathering pace for another show.  

 The unknown apricot variety that was gifted to us has been puttering along with a few blooms at odd moments.  It doesn't seem to produce large masses of buds, but its double blossoms are remarkable.

Caro has just returned from visiting her sister in Pennsylvania.  Now the house can go back to its normal routines.  She  reports on cooler temperatures in the Northeast, while back here in ABQ we are still in the mid-to-upper 90's.  They had thunderstorms that snarled air traffic.  ABQ is still suffer through a dry monsoon and the Rio is still not flowing.  Riparian vegetation is definitely hurting. 

As fall approaches, you 

Late Summer Blooms

The heat continues to break records.  The drought continues to break records.  The Rio is still dry.  Cottonwood leaves are yellowing and falling10 weeks early.  Only about 1.5" of rain since May Day.  

But a few things are still in flower:  Alstromeria, Rudbeckia, Dahlia, Salvia, Oenothera and Pedilanthus, to name a few.   Lagerstroemia is finishing up and even the fall-blooming Chyrsanthemum and Ceratostigma have come and largely gone.  

Pedilanthus flower and fruit

We did some sciency stuff during Monday morning's Nature's Notebook observations.  We've been watching cholla fruits go from green to yellow, back to green, or at least greenish-yellow.  How to score ripeness in Cylindropuntia imbricata has puzzled us.  Some say yellow color is diagnostic.  Others say the loss of spines indicates ripeness.  

We collected fruits at several stages and cut them open longitudinally.  Managed to avoid the spines and glochids.  Still haven't resolved the ripeness issue.  

After all, what does ripeness refer to?  A good definition would be "a condition of fitness for purpose."  

More to come... 

August Phenology

Following the hottest July on record (nationally as well as for Albuquerque), August shows no signs of letting up.  The heat continues near or above 100° every day.  The summer monsoon has largely been a "non-soon."  

Oddly, fall flowers are blooming early.  My current hypothesis is that the extremely early March warmth this spring has tricked some plants into "calculating" that 4 months has passed since the beginning of the growing season (normally April-May) and it's the correct time to bloom.  My bonsai deodar cedar is pushing fall foliage.  Meanwhile in the backyard, Ceratostigma (blue-flowered leadwort) and Chrysanthemum × morifolium (garden mum) are almost bloomed out.  Perhaps judicious dead-heading can prolong their flowering. 

This morning we knocked off another session of Nature's Notebook with mid-summer phenology observations.  The major debate today was on the ripening of Cylindropuntia (cholla) fruit.  I'll now pause typing this blog post while I dive into the online resources....

Lots of rangeland stuff about cholla eradication.  Most descriptions involve fruits turning yellow and then falling from the plant.  Folks at Nature's Notebook told Sandy that fruits that have lost their spines are ripe.  These descriptions seem to come from southern populations that I take to be C. imbricata var. spinosior.  

Our specimen, on the other hand, has persistent fruits that often take 2 seasons to finally drop from the stems.  Of course, by then they've progressed from yellow to a putty shade of beige.  They often turn green to yellow and back to green over the course of the season.  

The photo above, taken today, shows green, yellowish green, yellow, kinda orange, and putty fruits.  We'll be watching this group closely in the months ahead.  

One of the better illustrated resources is the Vascular Plants of the Gila from WNMU in Silver City, https://gilaflora.com/cylindropuntia_imbricata.html .  It shows yellow, spineless fruits in cross-section with pale brown seeds within.  It also mentions the low viability of the seeds.  

That's of little help to us with our spiny, persistent fruits.  Applying the Nature's Notebook rubric of ripeness as an indicator not of reproductive viability, but of value in the food chain, doesn't help here either.  

Reflecting on seed dispersal in chollas, the fruits appear fall in the immediate area of the parent plant.  Possibly they could attach themselves to the hide of passing large mammals.  I'm guessing that wherever the fruit land, they either have to weather for considerable time to expose the seeds or be broken open by some mechanical means like animal hooves.  Either way, I doubt if anyone is eating the fruits, unlike Opuntia, the prickly pear with its moist, dehiscent fruits at ripening.  

Cornish Pasties

 It's been a long while since I indulged in making a batch of Cornish pasties.  I'm not even sure when I began making them.  In any event, my secret sauce is in truth, Worcestershire sauce and Pilsbury refrigerated pie crusts.  Full disclosure:  Caro has me add peas(!).

Either with or without peas, the results are sublime.  I don't know what it is about the simple ingredients, but the addition of  'Swede' (rutabaga) is critical.  From poor copper miner's fare to modern savory, it's an amazing evolution.  

In other news, the Hibsicus cv 'Midnight Marvel' has bloomed out its first flush.  Buds are quickly filling in behind, so expect your Occasional Daily Hibiscus updates in the next few days.  Meanwhile, the double peach one is sending out one bloom about every other day.  

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Forecast is for 102° at the airport.  Could hit 105° here in the North Valley.  I'll break out my infrared thermometer later to see how hot various surfaces are. 

Leaf temperature of Ginkgo

Meanwhile, it's a good day to stay indoors blogging, doing laundry, and baking bread.  Right now the baguette dough is on its third of four rises.  Should be coming out of the oven around 4:30.  

And indeed, at 4:34 we have fresh bagettes in the boulangerie!