Waterman Mountains
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The Waterman Mountains are a low mountainous landform in
Pima County Pima County ( ) is a county in the south central region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,043,433, making it Arizona's second-most populous county. The county seat is Tucson, where most of the populati ...
,
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Notable among the tree species is the elephant tree (''
Bursera microphylla ''Bursera microphylla'', known by the common name elephant tree in English or 'torote' in Spanish, is a tree in genus ''Bursera''. It grows into a distinctive sculptural form, with a thickened, water-storing or caudiciform trunk. It is found in ...
'') which species exhibits a contorted multi-furcate architecture; most of these froze in the cold winter of 2011. The Waterman Mountain range is in the Ironwood Forest National Monument. The Waterman Mountains are not extensive, and merge into the southern section of the Silver Bell Mountains. The south of the range abuts the northwest of the northwest–southeast trending Roskruge Mountains. The highest point of the range is Waterman Peak at .


Prehistoric ecology

The prehistoric
ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...
and
plant community A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant ...
of the Waterman Mountains area of
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
has been reconstructed to its composition as far back as the last glacial period, the Late Wisconsin
glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...
period. Dominant trees of that era, based upon pollen records, were Utah juniper (''
Juniperus osteosperma ''Juniperus osteosperma'' (Utah juniper; syn. ''J. utahensis'') is a shrub or small tree native to the southwestern United States. Description The plant reaches , rarely to 9 m, tall. The shoots are fairly thick compared to most junipers, in ...
''), single-leaf pinyon (''
Pinus monophylla ''Pinus monophylla'', the single-leaf pinyon, (alternatively spelled piñon) is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to North America. The range is in southernmost Idaho, western Utah, Arizona, southwest New Mexico, Nevada, eastern and souther ...
''), and redberry juniper (''
Juniperus pinchotii ''Juniperus pinchotii'', commonly known as Pinchot juniper or redberry juniper, is a species of juniper native to south-western North America, in Mexico: Nuevo León and Coahuila, and in the United States: south-eastern New Mexico, central Texas ...
''), along with canotia ('' Canotia holacantha''), and understory plants including '' Monardella arizonica''.C. Michael Hogan. 2009


References


Sources

* C. Michael Hogan. 2009
''Elephant Tree: Bursera microphylla'', GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg
* Neal Erskine McClymonds. 1957. ''The stratigraphy and structure of the Waterman Mountains, Pima County, Arizona'' 314 pages


External links


Waterman Peak Summit, (coord)
{{Mountains of Arizona Flora of Arizona Mountain ranges of the Sonoran Desert Mountain ranges of Pima County, Arizona Mountain ranges of Arizona