Tucson's Tohono Chul Park

Tohono Chul Park Welcomes Birds, Butterflies and Lunch Guests

SOME PEOPLE COME to enjoy the plants, or to buy them from our greenhouse. A lot come for the birds or butterflies. Others come for events, for the arts and crafts in the shops, or simply to relax on a bench. And some come just to have lunch," said plant curator Russ Buhrow of Tucson's Tohono Chul Park. I confessed to Buhrow that the first time I went to Tucson's Tohono Chul Park, a midday repast on the lushly landscaped patio of its Tea Room restaurant was my only interest. Later visits to the 49-acre nature preserve opened my eyes to its many other attractions-including a "living" fence and a weedlike plant that transforms itself into a showpiece. Nestled in north Tucson just off busy Ina Road, Tohono Chul ("desert corner" in the language of the Tohono O'odham Indians) shelters hundreds of species of native and adapted Southwestern plants and 135 species of resident and seasonal birds. And then there are the butterflies. "One of the best things I ever did was to pay the butterflies and hummingbirds to hang out here," joked Mary E. Emich, director of visitor services. Actually, flowering bushes like the red bird of paradise, desert lavender and chuparosa attract the butterflies. And others such as desert larkspur, star glory, penstemon and owl clover-lure hummingbirds. "The thing about Tohono Chul is that there's always something blooming," Emich added. For example, before the globemallows, red flax and other spring wildflowers wane, the ocotillos and cacti burst into bloom-saguaros, hedgehogs, chollas, prickly pears and others. In fall and winter, hummingbird trumpets, salvia, dahlias and others appear. The park celebrates its flora with two events, the Wildflower Festival in April and the Night-blooming Cereus Bloom Night between mid-May and mid-August. As for wildlife, year-round sightings include coyotes, javelinas, bobcats, rabbits, rattlesnakes and zebra-tailed lizards. The park highlights its fauna during Park After Dark, the Friday after Memorial Day. Visitors wander on their own, with the help of maps, brochures and interpretive signs, or they join docent tours. One spring day, I walked Around with Buhrow, who showed me the shops, filled with everything from Indian pottery and baskets to cookware and native foods, and the plant-filled greenhouse. We explored the Desert Discovery Education Center, where lectures, workshops and other activities for all ages are held; the Garden for Children, with its child-sized stream; the Ethnobotanical Garden, featuring wild plants and Indian crops; the Demonstration Garden, with landscaping visitors can do in their own yards; a soothing riparian area; the Geology Wall, which tells the history of the nearby Santa Catalina Mountains; and the Sin Agua Garden, where native plants live on runoff.

Then we took to the trails, all about a quarter-mile long and easy. I spotted plenty of birds and butterflies, but no big critters or snakes. Buhrow told me that when park staff members see rattlers, they use "snake grabbers" to move them away from public areas. With bobcats they just stay clear and watch. But not everyone does.

"One day a bobcat ran through the park, chasing a bunny, I think," Buhrow recalled, "and some Japanese tourists took off after the cat, taking pictures."

When I saw saguaros with multicolored needles, I thought they must be some "rainbow" species new to me. "No," said Buhrow, "we paint the spines as part of a growth study. We track the dates the colors were added, then calculate how fast the cacti have grown."

Along the trails, I watched a fat dove sitting on its nest in a cholla cactus, stood under Arizona's national champion foothill paloverde tree-with its 28-foot canopy-and passed a fence constructed of never-say-die ocotillo wands still sprouting leaves. And I learned that some really ugly sticks were the festival-worthy night-blooming cereus plants, which in a few months would produce, for one night, large, white, pink and purple flowers that smell, Buhrow said, like gardenias, or Easter lilies.

Later, on my own, I found a place where the trees bordering each side of a path met overhead, seeming to form a tunnel to a spot that reminded me of an old movie called The Secret Garden, based on the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett. In the black-and-white film, a little girl finds solace in a hidden garden that, with some Hollywood magic, bursts into every Technicolor hue of bloom.

Tohono Chul Park seems nearly as hidden amid Tucson's urban sprawl, and its seasonal cascade of color just as stunning. But this garden is real-and you can have lunch there, too.

LOCATION: 7366 N. Paseo del Norte, Tucson. GETTING THERE: Drive to the intersection of Ina Road and North Paseo del Norte; the park is on the northeast corner. Coming from north or south of Tucson via Interstate 10, take Exit 248 at Ina Road. HOURS: Park and Tea Room (breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea), 8 A.M.-5 Ρ.Μ.; shops, greenhouse, exhibits, 9 A.M.-5 Ρ.Μ. FEES: $5, adults; $4, seniors; $3, students with school identification; $2, children; free under age 5. Tea Room, greenhouse and shops, free admission. EVENTS: Wildflower Festival, April 3, 3:30 Ρ.Μ.-7 Ρ.Μ.; $50 per person. Nightblooming Cereus Bloom Night, May and August dates to be announced (call for prediction), 5 P.M.-midnight; free. Park After Dark, June 3; free. TRAVEL ADVISORY: Stay on trails, wear walking shoes and carry water in summer. Pets are not allowed on park grounds. Outer trails are not wheelchair-accessible. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: (520) 7426455; www.tohonochulpark.org.

Outside the Tea Room, patrons enjoy breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea around the courtyard's tiled fountain.