Apache Plume Aglow| 1/8000sec; F/5.6; ISO-200; 135mm; Metering Mode: Centered Weighted Average Taken at 7:52 AM

Since moving to New Mexico, a high desert plant that I have come to admire is the common and aptly named, Apache Plume. The scientific name is Fallugia paradoxa. I encounter many of these plants in natural and man-made landscapes here in Albuquerque.  This specimen in our nearby park seemed perfect for a photo; I noticed it bathed in low key, rim-lighting in the hour following sunrise.  The plant seemed to be aglow. The resulting image is a good example of “finding the light.”

Botanically speaking:

Fallugia paradoxa is a native southwestern, semi-evergreen shrub with shredded bark and white flowers. These flowers are hermaphodites (having both male and female organs) and are pollinated by insects. Its fruits bear long pale pink feathery plumes. It grows throughout all four southwestern deserts — Mojave, Chihuahuan, Great Basin, and Sonoran. The range is from southeastern California and southern Nevada, to southern Colorado, west Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, to northern Mexico.  The plant lives at elevations of 3,000-8,000 feet.  This specimen was seen at approximately 5,660 feet [that’s 380 feet higher than a mile, if you are keeping track].