POTD August 12, 2013: Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Garfield County, Utah

Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Garfield County, Utah
Photographer: Michael Vanden Berg

Sausageleaf talinum finds suitable habitat in sand and spherical concretions eroded from the lower part of the Jurassic-aged Navajo Sandstone. The concretions (about half an inch in diameter) formed when iron-oxide minerals precipitated out of ground water that flowed through the sandstone.