Taken about 30 yd (27 m) east of Old Ore Road, on the Chihuahuan Desert floor 500 yd (457 m) east of the foot of Cuesta Carlota. And this spot was about 2.0 road mi (3.2 km) north of its intersection with the paved park road to Rio Grande Village (Park Road 12).
The marvelous plant on display here is a Chisos Prickly Poppy, Argemone chisosensis. The next shot in this series will show its flowers at closer range; this is the habitat shot. That said, there are two fully developed, white-petaled blossoms visible here. They're being tilted over to the right by a stiff breeze. This requires no further explanation, because it's always windy when I try to photograph wildflowers.
Chisos Prickly Poppy is an edifying example of a plant with an accurate common name. It is indeed a member of the Poppy Family (Papaveraceae); it is fearsomely armed with long prickles; and it does like to hang in and about the Chisos Mountains, which are only about 15 miles (24 km) due west of this locale.
This particular specimen seems to have built a rock garden for itself, and is nicely edged with larger chunks of what I gather are mostly Buda Limestone. There may also be some bits of the Del Rio Clay. Both formations make up this side of Cuesta Carlota, and are Upper Cretaceous in age. The smaller overlying stone fragments make up the desert pavement, a common sight in the arid places of the American Southwest.
One leading explanation of how desert pavement forms is an eminently simple one: smaller rock particles once present have gradually been blown away, and only the pebbles too heavy for aeolian transport have remained. But there are other hypotheses out there. For another view of this intriguing aspect of the desert landscape, see this post.
To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my my Integrative Natural History of Old Ore Road album.
