Life In The Desert

Occasionally I venture into the desert in July to see the dwellers that challenge all odds of nature.

I drove almost up to the Al Ain border, about 70km from Dubai, near Al Maha Desert Resort around 7am. Then I walked for about 5 kilometres in about two hours through the undulating dune country.

The Rub Al Khali has very limited plant diversity. There are only 37 species, 20 recorded in the main body of the sands and 17 around the outer margins.

I was rather amazed to see Tribulus terrestris that is variously called Puncture Vine, Caltrop, Yellow Vine and Goathead. We see this plant growing in great numbers along most of our highways during the winter, especially after rain.

At this period it grows straight up for 25-50cm, appears bright green and very lively.

However, the one I spotted at the base of a dune was a straggling one, had just one good trailing stem with some leaves and one very showy yellow flower that punctured the otherwise huge mass of red sand.

When you have a flower it must attract some creature either to drink nectar, pollen, petals or leaves of the mother plant. Before I could shoot a few pictures I found a small butterfly.

The coin-sized orangish-brown-black butterfly settled over the flower and started picking up tiny grains of pollens from the flower.

This flower and the butterfly made my walk through the bare sandy desert a success.