Two New Things

Not every hike has to be about awe-inspiring vistas or eerily eroded strange rock shapes, although that is what so many of my favorite hikes here in New Mexico are about. Instead, it can be unexpected encounters with some new wonder of the natural world that arouses my curiosity and leads me to learn something new. Today’s hike was one of those new learning kinds.

I actually learned two new things. The first was a tiny, yellow flower that I was sure I had never seen before.

Lee had no problem identifying it for me: Lemonscent. It was one that I had added to his website recently so you would think I would have remembered. He assured me that we see it on our other hikes, but it’s usually larger and bushy, not little bunches tucked in the rocks like these were.

With a name like lemonscent I was curious to know if it lived up to its name. I crushed the blossoms between my fingers and it definitely smelled lemony. After the first sightings I began to see it everywhere. Since it’s small and close to the ground it’s hard to see it in this photo but anything so fresh and bright on such rocky ground is worth a picture.

Looking closely at the rocky ground when we were making our way off-trail down a hillside yielded the second surprising discovery of the day. This time it wasn’t something colorful, but, instead, something very puzzling. Neither Lee nor I could figure out what we were looking at. Stems of grasses and weeds had dried mud columns enclosing them that we guessed might have been made by an insect.

Using iNaturalist and then a Google search for more information we learned about an insect called the long-jawed desert termite. It eats dead grasses and dry plant materials, building mud tunnels or “crusts” around its food while eating. Who would have guessed?

The hike wasn’t all just looking closely at rocky ground. There were overlook stops along the trail that gave us a chance to marvel at the beautiful blue sky and miles and miles of open spaces stretching in front of us.