Then I'd say you're very new at having seen bearded dragons or have poor eyesight, haha. The animal in the photograph is a bearded dragon. I think with as much research as you did, you'd see that desert spiny lizards have highly keeled scales which are quite reflective in the sunlight as well - neither of which that lizard exhibits. Also, just typing in "desert spiny lizard" to a google search engine brings up a lot more species than just desert spinies... Check out your pictures further - the animal is most definitely a bearded dragon... ~Mike

I live in Phoenix, AZ. I have lots of geckos. This lizard dwarfs the geckos. In fact, I imagine he might eat the geckos. I have found dead geckos and I think they starve as there are not enough small bugs for them to eat. I caught another large lizard in my house last fri. night. I believe it was a Clarks spiny lizard. He was HUGE. He used to live outside in my storage room across from the carport door. We were like neighbors and I would see him coming and going and vice versa. I believe he got through the door into the house when I returned late at night from work. I was able to catch him in a box and get him outside. He took off and right away a new lizard moved into the storage room. I believe this is the new lizard that moved into the storage room. I think he came in when my mother was leaving out the carport door at 5 AM Tues. with luggage. I came home that night to a large lizard dropping in the living room. I have been searching for him and finally saw him today. I think he is a Clark's or desert spiny lizard. The problem is that I started spraying for crickets. I only sprayed a little bit, but it is amazing how effective it is. I am not finding any crickets or ANYTHING but small geckos and lizards in the house. I cant even find crickets outside to feed the lizard. I bought mealworms at Petsmart and I think he ate one today...or it got away. Do you have any suggestions? Here is a pic of the big one from last week:

Also known as Heal-all, Prunella vulgaris is used in herbal medicine and the leaves are edible.

This most recent pic is pretty cool for a couple reasons, among them: The larger plant in the middle (and the one to the right in the foreground) is an example of a plant that I repotted in the brief pause after it had fully opened but before it started growing its first fascicle. The smaller plants (mostly out of focus) show individuals left to grow their first fascicles before repotting. Notice how much bigger the other 2 are at the same age!