HeyJaredGrowing Native with Petey Mesquitey
Petey Mesquitey is KXCI’s resident storyteller. Every week since the spring of 1992 Petey has delighted KXCI listeners with slide shows and poems, stories and songs about flora, fauna, and family and the glory of living in southern Arizona.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 20, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 5, 2026
Latest episodes
The Long-nosed Leopard Lizard (Gambelia wislizenii) (opens the original)
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Here are some clarifications…the scientific name for the long-nosed leopard is Gambelia wislizenii honoring the naturalist of the 1800s William Gambel and Friedrich Wislizenus, an army engineer and plant collector also of the 1800s. I’m surprised that there is no alluding to the leopard like spots on the body, or the long nose, or the very long round tail. It’s not like those two fellows don’t have a bunch of other flora and fauna named for them. Oh well. And, the term “post nuptial blush” refer
Change is Afoot (opens the original)
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Well, alleluia, it’s feeling “fallish!” Okay, lemme see…the photos are mine of a box turtle track (see the plastron print?), a snake track with the ventral scutes, nicely landscaped kangaroo rat mounds and a Wright’s buckwheat (Eriogonum wrightii). Oh, and I forgot to tell you that the kangaroo rat I so love…well, they’re all lovable, but the large banner tailed kangaroo rat (Dipodomys spectabilis) is prevalent on the land around our place and they are fantastic! Sooo, we gotta talk more about t
Purshia stansburyana (opens the original)
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Cliffrose has had quite a few botanical names. Remember when the botanical was Cowania mexicana var. stansburiana? Okay, I’m old. The current botanical name is, at least for the time being, Purshia stansburyana. Cliffrose is a beautiful and tough native shrub. And, it is so fragrant that usually you smell it before you see it. “What’s that sweet smell? Oh, look a flowering cliffrose!” The photos are mine and taken on the day described in this episode.
Fall Festival of Blooming Asteraceae (opens the original)
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It’s true that every year I get excited about fall blooming plants in the Aster family (Asteraceae) and proclaim that there should be a festival to celebrate these wonderful fall bloomers. How fortuitous to come across clumps of Gregg’s mistflower (Conoclinum dissectum) on a fall day out in the desert scrub. What a marvelous plant! And by the way, its botanical name used to be Eupatorium greggii and that was fun because I could jabber about Mithradates VI Eupator, the king of Pontus in northern
Spreading Snake Herb (opens the original)
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Here is the full botanical name of spreading snake herb: Dyschoriste schiedeana var. decumbens. Someone (Asa Gray?) had fun putting the Greek words together to form the genus meaning difficult to separate, referring to “ the valves of the capsules which adhere tightly to each other.” The specific epithet honors the German physician and botanist Christian Julius Wilhelm Schiede of the early 1800s (Willy, to his friends) who emigrated to Mexico to study the flora and fauna. The variety name decumb
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