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Creek Running North

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August 08, 2005

Data are where you find them

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.

Posted by Chris Clarke at August 8, 2005 09:47 AM TrackBack URL for this entry:
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Comments

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.

Posted by: Hungry Hyaena at August 8, 2005 11:06 AM

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.

Posted by: Rana at August 8, 2005 11:24 AM

Sometimes the changes are grim,

Yep.

Posted by: Chris Clarke at August 8, 2005 11:46 AM

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

Posted by: Roxanne at August 8, 2005 12:55 PM

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

Posted by: Chris Clarke at August 8, 2005 01:31 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."

Posted by: Mike Lerch at August 8, 2005 07:47 PM

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

think of the entomology!

Posted by: Stephanie at August 9, 2005 05:50 AM

long live dermestids!

Posted by: Mike Lerch at August 9, 2005 07:40 PM

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????

Posted by: Karen at August 9, 2005 09:12 PM

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.)

Posted by: Chris Clarke at August 9, 2005 10:25 PM

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.

Posted by: Stephanie at August 10, 2005 07:40 AM