Fotos

It was my last time in Joshua Tree National Park. I was there last December during business trip to San Diego. Clear atmosphere and very cold weather with stormy wind.

This park is situated on the southern border of Mojave Desert. This arid region of southeastern California and portions of Nevada, Arizona and Utah, occupies more than 25,000 square miles.

The Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia), the largest of the yuccas, grows only in the Mojave Desert. Natural stands of this picturesque, spike-leafed evergreen grow nowhere else in the world. Its height varies from 15&mash;40 feet with a diameter of 1—3 feet.

These plants growth not only in Joshua Tree National Park. Today I know two another places where they form real groves: one on the western slopes of Inyo Mountains and another one on southern end of Sierra Nevada.

Mormon pioneers are said to have named this species "Joshua" Tree because it mimicked the Old Testament prophet Joshua waving them, with upraised arms, on toward the promised land.