01 I visited Joshua Tree National Park, which is in the Southern California desert, in April 2002, when I had a brief respite from the Storage Networking World conference being held in nearby Palm Desert.  This is a tumbleweed.  Don't touch it!  It has sharp burrs. [Salsola kali.  It is Russian - not even a native plant. Most tpeople think tumbleweed is native.  Nope.] Thanks to Steven R, Hill of the Illinois Natural History Survey for plant identifications.
02 Wile E. Coyote stands guard between two Joshua trees.  A Joshua tree is actually a variety of yucca plant, and it grows in the five most wouthwestern of our states. 03 Rocks perch on outcroppings thoughgout the park, some quite oddly. 04 05 Western juniper [Juniperus occidentalis] 06 Look at the rock behind me. The greyish shrubs are called blackbrush. Coleogyne ramosissima .  The shrub behind me is probably another juniper [Juniperus]. 07 Yuccas with western juniper in the background.  Mojave yucca, Yucca schidigera, a different kind of Yucca with curled threads on the leaves 08 No, not a tumbleweed.  A desert shrub - but there are several possibilities.  Maybe Forestiera. 09 The tall spindly shrub to the right is probably creosote bush, Larrea tridentata.
10 Creosote bush (in foreground)
11 Teddy-bear cholla cactus (Opuntia bigelovii)
12 13 14 Amazong boulder placement! 15 juniper fruits [berries, cones]  - Juniperus occidentalis 16 Blackbrush [Coleogyne ramosissima] 17 Young joshua tree
18 19 20 21 Joshua trees, blackbrush, and teddy-bear cholla
22 Both types of yuccas are in this photo. 23 24