In this desert, leaves that are too big use too much water. They seldom survive. Mice and rabbits reproduce mightily, but if there are too many they starve because there is not enough food.
People seem to believe that things that are bigger are automatically better.
The bighorn sheep is protected, but the ant is not. The saguaro is revered, but the mammalaria is hardly noticed. The fields of bright poppies are photographed, but the amazing and stubborn resurrection plant is little known. Letting the other guy toss bottles, cans, and trash out in the desert seems to automatically mean that it's ok for me to do it, too. There are some who wander the desert with their trash bags trying to undo what the other guy has done.