Sunrise Ajo Lily

by Robert Bales

Title

Sunrise Ajo Lily

Artist

Robert Bales

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

This Ajo lily was facing the sunrise and the beautiful tones of the sunrise was captured by the lily.
Looking much like an Easter Lily, this plant can be easily seen growing grows along desert roads in the spring. The Desert Lily has a deep bulb that sends up a stem in early spring that can be 1 to 4 feet high. A cluster of long, blue-green leaves with white margins grows just above the ground. The Desert Lily's leaves are about an inch wide with wavy edges and grow 8 to 20 inches long.

The Desert Lily was called "Ajo (garlic) Lily" by the Spanish because of the bulb's flavor. Native Americans used the bulb as a food source. These bulbs can remain in the ground for several years, waiting for enough moisture to emerge.
BLM administers the popular Desert Lily Sanctuary, officially designated by Congress in 1994 as part of the California Desert Protection Act which reinforced BLM administrative protection of the area dating back to 1968. The Sanctuary is located on State Highway 177, just 7 miles northeast of Desert Center. The best time to visit the Desert Lily Sanctuary is February through April.
It is pollinated by the sphinx moth and blooms in March or April, but not every year. When the growing season is over, the bulb and its 10 inch root lie dormant, 1/2 to two feet underground. It is found in southwestern Arizona and northern Mexico. The town of Ajo, Arizona was apparently named after the ajo lily, because they are (or were) so prevalent there. Presumably, the Ajo Mountains that are in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument may also have gotten their name for the same reason. I found a poem titled "Ajo Lily" by Peggy Shumaker in in The Amicus Journal, dated March 22, 1997. It reads, in part, " Two feet deep under earth...the bulbs swell, sweetness too deep to lure larvae, ground too hard even wet years to tempt claws. Impossibly delicate one layered shoot reaches up, pushing aside massive rubble...so these clear blue bells might echo ajo, ajo..."

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February 20th, 2014

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