Desert Gallery

Spinifex ring (Triodia sp.)

Spinifex ring (Triodia sp.), on lower dune slopes, providing a raised flower bed for ephemeral wildflowers such as wild parsnip (Trachymene glaucifolia) after winter rain. Cravens Peak Station, edge of northern Simpson Desert, southwest Queensland, Australia

© Wayne Lawler/AUSCAPE All rights reserved

Australian, Bush Heritage Australia, Circle, Circular, Desert, Expanse, Featureless, Flora, Grass, Growth, Immensity, Landscape, Nature, Plain, Plants, Scenery, Scenic, Spinifex Rings, Vastness, Vegetated, Vegetation, Wildflower

Gypsum sand dunes and plants that can grow fast enough to avoid burial by the shifting sands

Gypsum sand dunes and plants that can grow fast enough to avoid burial by the shifting sands. Gypsum sand is rare since gypsum is water soluble and rain would carry it to the sea. But the San Andres (in distance) and Sacramento Mountains surround this area so rainwater washed into it remains, eventually drying and leaving gypsum crystals known as selenite. Alkali Flats, White Sands National Monument, New Mexico, USA

© Fritz Polking / AUSCAPE All rights reserved

Laguna Miscanti

Laguna Miscanti, heart-shaped lagoon with clear but brackish water, and snow-capped Cerro Miniques, a volcanic complex of craters, lava domes and flows. Los Flamencos National Reserve, Atacama Desert, Antofagasta Region, Chile

© Attila Bicskos Kaszo/AUSCAPE All rights reserved

Andes, Central Andean Dry Puna, Desert, High Altitude, Hyperarid, Lagoon, Lake, Landscape, Saline, Salt, Scenery, South America, Water