I live in Tucson and have wild morning glories in my back yard and domesic Heavenly Blues in my front yard. The wild ones have a tiny blue flower. A neighbor had a small bush of them growing in his front yard. The next year I had a single vine in my back yard. Now my whole back yard gets covered with then if we have a good monsoon. This year they sprouted up and barely any survived at all, but I noticed a few sparce scarggely plants managed to bloom and I know they'll be back once we get good summer rains again. I planted the heavenly blues in the front yard and they grew well without a single bloom until the temps hit tripple didgets. They did not like the heat and my only hope was to nurse them along until we got cooler temperatures. Finally, we got cooler temperatures in mid October and they started to bloom like crazy. I havent noticed any seed setting yet though. So far the blooms just fall off without setting any seed. I'm hopefull some seed will set before frost set in because I planted all the seed I had. It's my belief that Arizona's ban on morning glories has more to with courting the votes of farmers than any real threat to agriculture. I mean who would want to grow the native weedy ones when there are far more showy varities to grow?

I am a biology instructor and know a little about CAM. It is a physiological trade-off that allows plants to conduct gas exchange at night, in trade for being a bit less efficient at using light energy. Most plants conduct gas exchange (which involves opening up little pores called stomata) during the day, at the same time they are gathering light. This leaves plants at risk of dessication, because water is lost through the stomata, particularly when it is hot and dry. If gas exchange happens at night, water loss is reduced because it is cooler and the sun is not out. Plants appear to wait until the temperature is right at night to open their stomata, and then "breathe". At night in Phoenix, however, it is usually above 80 and sometimes 90, and some plants must never encounter that temperature threshold at which they decide to open their stomata. If this goes on for long enough, they suffer and die. When I lived in Phoenix I noticed all my Crassulaceae would die if left outside in the summer, as would some Aizoaceae and Mesembs. By the way, the deserts in southern Africa where many Aloes are from are hot, but not Phoenix hot. Their summers are often in the 90s and low 100s in the day, and 60s-70s at night. Quite hot, but not like Phoenix (or Baghdad!). More like Tucson, as somebody mentioned above. I also There are apparently several variants on CAM physiology. Some succulents can't hack Phoenix in the summer (as above), but some large cacti grow when it's really hot (Cereus, saguaros, etc.). A number of smaller cacti go dormant, and wait until the worst heat goes away. I lived in Phoenix for a couple of years and had some (small) tree cacti in pots. They seemed fine, but I gave them part shade. The Desert Botanical Garden also has several Aloe dichotoma growing happily there in the middle of Phoenix, so it obviously can be done.

I will try to provide some info based off of memory... I believe that a few milk snakes have been found in Cochise County, but less than three have ever been recorded by an academic source. Andy Holycross found one, I think...And I know that there have been some anecdotal sightings of milk snakes in Cochise. Andy found his milk while doing the Massasauga study a few years back. I wouldn't expect to see one. :) chad

I love that place. I went to Phoenix about five years ago in September thinking it would be cool enought to herp during the day. I was wrong. Every day was in the high 90s low 100s. I managed to find a tiger rattlesnake on the last night with only an hour of herping left. That was the only snake of the trip but was well worth it. I need to get back one day during the monsoons.