A Monsoon Flower

"Rain Lily" in the Southwest Desert

The monsoonal weather, as we call it, continues.  It is humid.  We are not used to high humidity.  One consolation is that something unusual may bloom in all the rain and humidity.  One such treat is what we call a rain lily.  This little flower, whose blossom is about 3 inches in diameter and about 7 to 8 inches tall on a very slim stem, grows from a bulb.  The only time rain lilies appear in my yard is monsoon.  The blossom lasts one day.  Somewhere back in time someone planted the bulb.  It split, i.e., the bulb multiplied over the years, and now there is a cluster of several bulbs.  If you look at the second photo closely, you can see the wilted remains of the early blooming rain lilies.  The blossom lasts only one day, then wilts and dies.

 second photo of Rain Lily

Notice the wilted and dead flowers above the rain lily blossom in the "second photo of Rain Lily" (to the right of this paragraph).  There is a very healthy basil leaf hanging down into the top of the photo.  That old terra cota ceramic plant pot the basil is in has been through over a decade of Southwest Desert summers and winters. It has the wear to show for it.  It has expanded every summer in temperatures over 110 degrees (F), and contracted in below freezing temperatures every winter.

Another unusual thing about this year's monsoon season is the record-breaking wall of dust that swept into Phoenix, the capital of the State of Arizona.  The news reporting folks tell us that the wall of dust was more than 50 miles wide and up to 10,000 feet tall.  When it hit Phoenix, it was reported to be 5000 feet tall.  That's almost a mile high as you folks in Denver know.  Winds were reported as high as 81 miles per hour.  Photos of the wall of dust look like a tsunami, but it was dust, not water.  Folks in Phoenix got quite a dusting of desert dirt particles.  Their cars needed washing and their swimming pools needed cleaning because of the unusual amount of dust that got swept in to the area.  The Phoenix sky turned black with dust. 

I suppose it will rain again late this afternoon as the clouds are starting to slowly appear.  The UV (ultraviolet) description is "extremely high" and we have more than 14 hours of sunlight from sunrise to sunset these days.  The sun is strong, the humidity is high, the temperature is more or less 100 degrees in the daytime.

I hope the Southwest Desert Blogger readers in South Africa and Germany are staying cool.  Let me know what the weather is there.  And P.S., translate it into Fahrenheit for me. 
Thanks and / und Danke,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011