Joshua Tree National Park Flashcards

A Joshua tree is not really a tree. It is a kind of yucca plant, and it grows only in this part of the world.

Two deserts meet in this park. Joshua trees grow only in the higher, cooler Mojave Desert half.

The Cahuilla people have lived in this desert for a very long time. They ate the fruit of the fan palm and used its long leaves to build homes.

The teddy bear cholla looks soft and fuzzy. Do not touch it! Its spines are sharp and stick to skin.

The big round rocks here are made of granite. Water and time wore down their edges, so now they look smooth and round.

The sky here gets very dark at night. You can see thousands of stars and the wide band of the Milky Way.

The desert tortoise digs a burrow to stay cool. It spends most of its life underground and can live about 100 years.

From Keys View you stand at 5,185 feet and look down at the whole valley. On a clear day you can spot the Salton Sea and the crack of the San Andreas Fault.

The greater roadrunner is a bird that would rather run than fly. It races along the ground on long legs and hunts lizards, snakes, and bugs.

A woman named Minerva Hoyt loved the desert plants so much that she worked for years to protect them. In 1936 her work helped turn this land into a park.