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Yuma Desert
The Yuma Desert is a lower-elevation section of the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern United States and the northwest of Mexico. It lies in the Salton basin. The desert contains areas of sparse vegetation and has notable areas of sand dunes. With an average rainfall less than each year, it is among the harshest deserts in North America. Human presence is sparse throughout, the largest city being Yuma, Arizona, on the Colorado River and the border of California. Overview The desert includes the lower-elevation parts of the southwestern corner of Arizona, extending west to the Colorado River. On the other side of the river, in California, is the Colorado Desert region of the Sonoran Desert, also referred to as the Low Desert. Although the two regions are separated only by the Colorado River, numerous species of plant and animals live only on one side or the other, such as saguaro cactus, which occurs only east of the river. The Yuma Desert also includes the sandy plains of west ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial Sand Dunes
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texas * Imperial, West Virginia * Imperial, Virginia * Imperial County, California * Imperial Valley, California * Imperial Beach, California Elsewhere * Imperial (Madrid), an administrative neighborhood in Spain * Imperial, Saskatchewan, a town in Canada Buildings * Imperial Apartments, a building in Brooklyn, New York * Imperial City, Huế, a palace in Huế, Vietnam * Imperial Palace (other) * Imperial Towers, a group of lighthouses on Lake Huron, Canada * The Imperial (Mumbai), a skyscraper apartment complex in India Animals and plants * '' Cheritra'' or imperial, a genus of butterfly Architecture, design, and fashion * Imperial, a luggage case for the top of a coach * Imperial, the top, roof or second-storey compartmen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
The Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is located in Arizona in the southwestern United States, northeast of Yuma and southeast of Quartzsite. The refuge, established in 1939 to protect desert bighorn sheep, encompasses over of the Yuma Desert region of the Sonoran Desert. Broad, gently sloping foothills as well as the sharp, needlepoint peaks of the Kofa Mountains are found in the rugged refuge. The small, widely scattered waterholes attract a surprising number of water birds for a desert area. A wide variety of plant life is also found throughout the refuge. Kofa Wilderness takes up 547,719 acres of the refuge, making it the second largest wilderness area in Arizona. History The name Kofa comes from a former area gold mine: the King of Arizona mine (active from 1897 to 1910), with Kofa a contraction of the name. In 1936, the Arizona Boy Scouts mounted a statewide campaign to save the bighorn sheep, leading to the creation of Kofa. The Scouts first became interested in the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olneya Tesota
''Olneya tesota'' is a perennial flowering tree of the family Fabaceae, legumes (peas, beans, etc.), which is commonly known as ironwood, desert ironwood, or palo fierro in Spanish. It is the only species in the monotypic genus ''Olneya''. This tree is part of the western Sonoran Desert complex in the Southwestern United States. Description The desert ironwood grows as a bush or tree, reaching heights of about and average trunk diameters of about . Exceptionally, in larger protected washes it can reach greater height and a more massive trunk. In younger trees, the bark is gray, shiny, and smooth; in older trees the bark is broken open. The tree is evergreen, but can lose its leaves if temperatures fall below . In continual drought conditions the leaves will be lost. The leaves are bluish-green and pinnately compound. They are arranged on a petiole, long, with 6–9 leaflets (or variously up to 15, with 7 opposite and one terminal), each measuring . At the base of each pinn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chilopsis Linearis
''Chilopsis'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants containing the single species ''Chilopsis linearis''. It is known commonly as desert willow''Chilopsis linearis''. USDA PLANTS. or desert-willow''Chilopsis linearis''. NatureServe. 2012. because of its -like leaves, but it is not a true willow being instead a member of the family. It is a |
Parkinsonia
''Parkinsonia'' , also ''Cercidium'' , is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about 12 species that are native to semi-desert regions of Africa and the Americas. The name of the genus honors English apothecary and botanist John Parkinson (1567–1650). They are large shrubs or small trees growing to tall, dry season deciduous, with sparse, open, thorny crowns and green bark. The leaves are pinnate, sometimes bipinnate, with numerous small leaflets; they are only borne for a relatively short time after rains, with much of the photosynthesis carried out by the green twigs and branches. The flowers are symmetrical or nearly so, with five yellow or white petals. The fruit is a pod containing several seeds. Most American species are known by the common name of palo verde or paloverde, from the Spanish words meaning "green pole" or "green stick". This name is derived from its characteristic green trunk. The palo verde (not species-specific) is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bajada (geography)
A bajada consists of a series of coalescing alluvial fans along a mountain front. These fan-shaped deposits form by the deposition of sediment within a stream onto flat land at the base of a mountain.Desert Processes Working Grou"Summary: Alluvial Features, Bajadas", ''Knowledge Sciences, Inc.''. Retrieved on 9 October 2012 The usage of the term in landscape description or geomorphology derives from the Spanish word ''bajada'', generally having the sense of "descent" or "inclination". Formation and occurrence When a stream flows downhill, it picks up sediment along with other materials. As this stream emerges from a mountain front, the sediment carried begins to be deposited, such that coarser sediment is deposited closest to the base and the finer sediment grades outwards and deposits in a fan-shape away from the mountain face.National Geographic Society"Alluvial Fan" ''National Geographic''. Retrieved on 9 October 2012 The sediment is transported across a pediment Pedi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fouquieria Splendens
''Fouquieria splendens'' (commonly known as ocotillo (), but also referred to as buggywhip, coachwhip, candlewood, slimwood, desert coral, Jacob's staff, Jacob cactus, and vine cactus) is a plant indigenous to the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Desert and Colorado Desert in the Southwestern United States (southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas), and northern Mexico (as far south as Hidalgo and Guerrero). While semi- succulent and a desert plant, Ocotillo is more closely related to tea and blueberries than to cactuses. For much of the year, the plant appears to be an arrangement of large spiny dead sticks, although closer examination reveals that the stems are partly green. With rainfall, the plant quickly becomes lush with small (2–4 cm), ovate leaves, which may remain for weeks or even months. Individual stems may reach a diameter of 5 cm at the base, and the plant may grow to a height of 10 m (33 ft). The plant branches ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carnegiea Gigantea
The saguaro (, ) (''Carnegiea gigantea'') is a tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus ''Carnegiea'' that can grow to be over tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California. The saguaro blossom is the state wildflower of Arizona. Its scientific name is given in honor of Andrew Carnegie. In 1994, Saguaro National Park, near Tucson, Arizona, was designated to help protect this species and its habitat. Saguaros have a relatively long lifespan, often exceeding 150 years. They may grow their first side arm around 75–100 years of age, but some never grow any arms. Arms are developed to increase the plant's reproductive capacity, as more apices lead to more flowers and fruit. A saguaro can absorb and store considerable amounts of rainwater, visibly expanding in the process, while slowly using the stored water as needed. This characteristic enables the saguaro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larrea Tridentata
''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and ''gobernadora'' (Spanish for "governess") in Mexico, due to its ability to secure more water by inhibiting the growth of nearby plants. In Sonora, it is more commonly called ''hediondilla''; Spanish ''hediondo'' = "smelly". It is a flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae. The specific name ''tridentata'' refers to its three-toothed leaves. Distribution ''Larrea tridentata'' is a prominent species in the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts of western North America, and its range includes those and other regions in portions of southeastern California, Arizona, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States, and Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Zacatecas, Durango and San Luis Potosì in Mexico. The species grows as far east as Zapata County, Texas, along the Rio Grande southeast of Laredo near the 99th meridian west. Des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cordillera
A cordillera is an extensive chain and/or network system of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly used in physical geography p. 687 (Encyclopedia Americana Corp., 1918): "It is used particularly in physical geography, although in geology also it is sometimes applied...." and is particularly applied to the various large |
Sierra Madre Occidental
The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western 'sounds' of North America, Central America, South America and West Antarctica. Etymology The Spanish name ''sierra madre'' means "mother mountain range" in English, and ''occidental'' means "western", these thus being the "Western mother mountain range". To the east, from the Spanish ''oriental'' meaning "eastern" in English, the Sierra Madre Oriental range or "Eastern Mother Mountains" runs generally parallel to the Sierra Madre Occidental along eastern Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. The range extends from northern Sonora, a state near the Mexico–U.S. border at Arizona, southeastwards to the T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
