Since the large photo was taken by Anton Corbijn in 1986, the single-stemmed Joshua tree near Death Valley has grown to about 130 percent of its 1986 height. It has flowered once, with a subsidiary branch subsequently growing from the point where the flower bud died. (Technically, the continuation of the upright stem from that point is also a subsidiary branch, as the original bud died after flowering.)

Inset photo taken May 12, 2005.

1. 
   Hungry Hyaena 2005 08 08 at 3:07:20 pm

   Thanks for this tidbit/update.  In my early teens, I stared at the photos of U2 with the Joshua trees,  enamored both of the band and the location.  For an East Coast kid, such a landscape was beautifully alien.

2. 
   Rana 2005 08 08 at 3:24:56 pm

   Oh, cool.  I love looking at photographs taken in the same spot years apart.  Sometimes the changes are grim, but I always find them fascinating.

3. 
   Chris Clarke 2005 08 08 at 3:46:35 pm

   Sometimes the changes are grim,

    

   Yep.

4. 
   Roxanne 2005 08 08 at 4:56:03 pm

   Funny. My first thought when I looked at the photo was of Jim Morrison.

5. 
   Chris Clarke 2005 08 08 at 5:32:10 pm

   I think a photo of Jim Morrison in 1986 would be kind of interesting.

6. 
   Mike Lerch 2005 08 08 at 11:48:25 pm

   “I think a photo of Jim Morrison in 1986 would be kind of interesting.”

   Perhaps in the same way that the burned skeleton of a Joshua tree might be “interesting.”

7. 
   Stephanie 2005 08 09 at 9:50:47 am

   I think a photo of Jim Morrison in 1986 would be kind of interesting.

   think of the entomology!

8. 
   Mike Lerch 2005 08 09 at 11:41:28 pm

   long live dermestids!

9. 
   Karen 2005 08 10 at 1:13:30 am

   Could somebody clue me in on the backstory here?  I haven’t spent much time in the California desert, but I recall Joshua trees in places in the Mojave and the Darwin area, but Death Valley????

10. 
    Chris Clarke 2005 08 10 at 2:26:18 am

    long live dermestids!

     

    About three weeks each, right?

     

    Karen, the trees being discussed here are in the Centennial Flat area not far from the road to Darwin. They’re also just a few miles from the boundary of Death Valley National Park (though admittedly quite a ways from the Valley proper.)

11. 
    Stephanie 2005 08 10 at 11:41:17 am

    long live dermestids!

     

    I went reading up on forensic entomology, and happened upon this wonderfully witty, informative article about using dermestids for skeleton preparation in museum collections: http://www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/mammals/dermestid.html. For some reason I keep giggling over the line “But do not remove the brain unless you are an incredible pansy.”

     

    Actually, Chris, according to this fellow, at least some species live four or five months.