Debbie beside a Green Gentian stalk
My friend Debbie got a hot tip from another hiker when she was up on Mt. Lemmon the other week: The Green Gentians were waking up and sprouting tall stalks that would soon flower for the only time in their 20-80-year life, then they would die. It's a BIG deal! So she took Jan and me up the mountain yesterday to "stalk" them.
This is what they look like for decades, and we saw plenty in this phase. But the flowering is a rare event.
We didn't find any blooms yet, but this is an image I found online. The flowers are one to two inches across.
We found plenty of stalks, which can get up to 10 feet tall. It's also known as the monument plant because of this. They're native to mountainous areas of the Western United States, including Mt. Lemmon just outside of Tucson.
We found all of these in one little area, so it will be spectacular when they all bloom.
Then we hugged some big trees because we never get to do this down in the desert! It was so nice and cool up there at 8,000 feet, about 65 degrees and breezy so it felt more like 55.
Then we did what you traditionally do on Mt. Lemmon, which is heading to the Iron Door for lunch and your own little pie. Jan's loaded potato was monumental!
I had chicken quesadillas that I ate for lunch and later dinner, followed by a cinnamon-flecked warm apple pie with crumble topping.
Jan got peach blueberry (below) and Debbie had mountain berry with a mountain of whipped cream on top. It was a good day.
Have a colorful day
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