The Fantastic Clan: The Cactus Family - free ebook by Frances Bonker

Read as playlist

The Fantastic Clan: The Cactus Family

Frances Bonker

170 chapters

5 hour read

Read as playlist

Selected Chapters

170 chapters

THE FANTASTIC CLAN. THE CACTUS FAMILY.

THE FANTASTIC CLAN. THE CACTUS FAMILY.

Studies of that unique and fascinating growth, the Cactus plant, treating of all the most important groups of Cacti known, with scientific accuracy, and depicting the charm of the desert land, its magic spell and wondrous lure, in the great Cactus area of the world, the American desert of the Southwest. By JOHN JAMES THORNBER, A.M., Professor of Botany, University of Arizona and FRANCES BONKER. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK MDCCCCXXXII...

26 minute read

Read Chapter

PREFACE

PREFACE

In this book we are going to introduce something new and interesting to many, the weird cactus plant life of the Southwestern desert—strange and marvelous growths which we call the Fantastic Clan; and to increase the reality and charm of the subject we will take an imaginary trip into the domain of the flowers of the desert. We shall explain here how to come to know them, and how to grow them in gardens; and we hope that, after reading, you will desire to have a cactus garden of your own, for th

2 minute read

Read Chapter

FOREWORD

FOREWORD

We believe that many readers are interested in the mysterious plants and flowers of the desert, especially of the great Southwest. Here in our own back yard, as it were, in sunny California and also over in that great sand pile of southwestern Arizona, sometimes called the “Studio of the Gods,” time has carved and chiseled out wonderful valleys and cañons, and graced their floors with tiny streams of water like threads of molten silver on burnished sands. This desert fairyland is brimful of Natu

4 minute read

Read Chapter

GROWTH AND HABITATS

GROWTH AND HABITATS

They are trees, shrubs, or climbers, growing erect or spreading out with ribbed branches; they are the tallest and largest of the Cactaceæ. The flowers are funnel-form, some are elongated and very showy, and we find that they bloom mostly in the darkness of the desert night. Perhaps this night blooming accounts for the softness and brilliance of their delicate colorings, as of the orchids, the most gorgeous of which as you know come from the deep shaded forests of the South American jungles. The

31 minute read

Read Chapter

Caterpillar Cactus (Cereus eruca)

Caterpillar Cactus (Cereus eruca)

Lower California, Magdalena Island The first of these growths to attract our attention is the weird Creeping Devil cactus! How apropos is this nomenclature! We see it here in Lower California, Cereus eruca , creeping along the coastal lands and over the fine drifted sands of the seashore like countless thousands of caterpillars crawling over the ground, worming their way slowly across the sandy plains to the sea. This remarkable cactus grows on the coastal plains of Lower California and is abund

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Senita (Cereus Schottii)

Senita (Cereus Schottii)

Lower California, Sonora, and Southwestern Arizona SENITA, ZINA, OR SINA ( Cereus Schottii ) The next growth to attract our notice is that called by botanists Cereus Schottii or Lophocereus Schottii . It is named also for convenience Senita, Zina, and Sina. This is a remarkable cactus found in Sonora (a state of Northern Mexico), southwestern Arizona, and Lower California under the most arid conditions. It grows commonly in colonies and patches in the mountain cañons and there enjoys protection

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Prohibition Cactus (Cereus Emoryi)

Prohibition Cactus (Cereus Emoryi)

Lower California, Northern Mexico, and Southwestern California Bergorocactus Emoryi , as he is sometimes called, is a little fellow to have such a long name. He is odd and rather humble, and very much resembles the Hedgehog Cactus, another group of Cereus, entirely. He grows well on the arid hillsides near the southern coast in San Diego County, California, and in Lower California; perhaps we should call him the “Prohibition cactus,” for he likes his home place dry. A foot or two high, he grows

59 minute read

Read Chapter

Old Man Cactus (Cereus senilis)

Old Man Cactus (Cereus senilis)

Mexico Next in line of our fashion parade comes the Cereus senilis , sometimes called by the botanists Cephalocereus senilis (a polite way of saying “old man”). For a long time he has been one of the most popular of the Cactus Clan. He grows well in cactus gardens and conservatories, here and in Europe, and is greatly in demand on both continents; his habitat is the limestone foothills and mountains in northern and central Mexico, and is rather inaccessible. We find that the radial spines of the

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Pipe Organ Cactus (Cereus Thurberi)

Pipe Organ Cactus (Cereus Thurberi)

Lower California, Sonora, and Southern Arizona An aristocrat of the Cactaceæ claims our attention next, Cereus Thurberi , called also the “Pipe Organ” cactus. It grows well in the arid mountain regions, on the lower mountains and flats of Lower California and from Sonora in Mexico to southern Arizona, usually in colonies, seeking the rocky, gravelly soil in foothills and along the mountain cañons. Notice how it branches near the base and grows from ten to twenty feet tall; very erect and stately

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Serpent Cactus (Cereus serpentinus)

Serpent Cactus (Cereus serpentinus)

In one of the cultivated gardens of Northern Mexico we are introduced by the hospitable natives (half Mexican, half Spanish), to that weird and striking growth, the Cereus serpentinus , known also in the realm of botany as Nyctocereus serpentinus . Any one of its long sinuous tentacles, the six to fifteen entangled stems, might easily remind one of the twisted body of a serpent springing at its intended victim! This is a Night Blooming Cereus cactus, supposed to be a native of eastern Mexico, wh

3 minute read

Read Chapter

Giant Cactus (Cereus giganteus)

Giant Cactus (Cereus giganteus)

Southern California, Southern Arizona, and Mexico That fellow over yonder is Cereus giganteus , or Carnegiea gigantea ; he is “old Sahuaro” (pronounced “sa-wáh-ro”), Saguaro, or Giant cactus. Sahuaro is the “Sage of the Desert” because of the great age he attains, often two hundred fifty years or more. He is the giant tree of the cactus clan. There are Sahuaro out on the Great American Desert that were old when the thirteen colonies became a nation in 1776. Proud and dignified and stately they s

4 minute read

Read Chapter

Night Blooming Cereus (Cereus Greggii)

Night Blooming Cereus (Cereus Greggii)

Southern California, Mexico, Southern Arizona, and Texas The fashion show of the desert is about to close, for we see approaching us in southeastern California the Cereus Greggii , the typical night blooming cereus. Have you been in the Hawaiian Islands? Have you attended any of the early Spanish fiestas? Have you heard the stories of the Night Blooming Cereus? If so, you have heard about the most beautiful, the most fragrant of flowers! No flower garden or conservatory is complete without this

5 minute read

Read Chapter

HOW TO GROW CACTI

HOW TO GROW CACTI

In general cacti like warm or hot sunny southern exposures; they grow best in sandy, gravelly, or rocky loam or clay soils, according to the habits of the species; they succeed best with good drainage, a moderate or limited rainfall or a limited amount of moisture in the soil. They should have occasional dry periods to harmonize growth with their original desert habitats, and also all the summer heat possible. This produces the contracted growth characteristic of cacti with all their desert beau

1 minute read

Read Chapter

LOCATIONS FOR CULTIVATION

LOCATIONS FOR CULTIVATION

Cacti may be grown out of doors in the entire southwestern section of the United States, in Mexico, Central America, and South America (except the southern part), where the temperatures are never colder than fifteen to twenty-five degrees below freezing. Also, they can be grown successfully out of doors in parts of Spain and Portugal, and in the region immediately bordering the Mediterranean Sea, over much of Africa lying at the lower altitudes, in Arabia, Persia, India, southern China, extreme

53 minute read

Read Chapter

The Cereus Group or Torch Flower Cacti (Cereus)

The Cereus Group or Torch Flower Cacti (Cereus)

Many species of this group can be identified by the beautiful candelabralike branching of the plants. They are trees, shrubs, or climbers, and grow erect or spread out, the tallest and largest trees or plants of the cactus family. They are the “torch flower” cacti, are tropical or subtropical, the stems growing single or clustered, with prominent ridges or flutes which in many instances expand or contract as the plant fills with water or loses its moisture. The tubercles are not conspicuous and

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Caterpillar Cactus; Creeping Devil Cactus; Chirinola (Cereus eruca)

Caterpillar Cactus; Creeping Devil Cactus; Chirinola (Cereus eruca)

(Named “eruca,” or “caterpillar cactus,” because the stems turn upward at their tips, resembling a caterpillar, head and body) The prostrate stems, three to nine feet long, lie flat on the ground with their tips upturned, resembling huge caterpillars. They grow in light sandy soils or sand, and root from below, the tips of the stems elongating and growing forward, the bases of the stems dying; thus the plant slowly moves forward over the sand. These prostrate stems, two or three inches in diamet

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Senita, Zina, or Sina (Cereus Schottii)

Senita, Zina, or Sina (Cereus Schottii)

(Named from its appearance of old age, and for F. A. Schott, a botanical explorer of western United States) These plants grow in colonies or patches in the mountain cañons, twenty to fifty stems in a clump, the dense branches interlocking in huge clusters twenty-five feet high and twenty feet or more across. The yellow-green stems are scalloped and cylindric, five or six inches in diameter, growing four to twenty feet or more in height, with five to nine ridges running lengthwise from top to bot

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Prohibition Cactus (Cereus Emoryi)

Prohibition Cactus (Cereus Emoryi)

(Named in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Emory, who was in charge of the Mexican Boundary Survey) This is a low-branched plant a foot or two high, growing prostrate with erect branches in thick impenetrable masses ten to twenty feet across. Numerous stiff, needlelike thorns form a dense spiny yellowish coating over the entire mass. There are many pale yellow to yellow-brown flowers an inch and a half long which cluster near the tips of the stems. The fruit is globose and densely spiny, an inch or s

54 minute read

Read Chapter

Old Man Cactus; White Persian Cat Cactus; Bunny Cactus (Cereus senilis)

Old Man Cactus; White Persian Cat Cactus; Bunny Cactus (Cereus senilis)

(Named from the long white hairs or beards found on young plants) This cactus is columnar, and some mature plants reach a height of forty-five feet. It is native to Mexico and not easily accessible. The trunk is usually unbranched, cylindrical in young plants, two or three inches in diameter, yellow-green with a scurfy waxy coating; and it is not tough. A large tree can be cut down with a small pocketknife in some instances. The twenty or twenty-five radial spines are changed over into long coar

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Pipe Organ Cactus; Pitahaya (Cereus Thurberi)

Pipe Organ Cactus; Pitahaya (Cereus Thurberi)

(Named in honor of George Thurber, botanist of the Mexican Boundary Commission) These are large, columnar, symmetrical plants ten to twenty feet tall; the large columns of yellow-green stems, in six to thirty branches ascending from near the base, look much like the pipes of a great organ at a distance. The stems are from six inches to nearly two feet in diameter and are cylindrical, with fifteen to nineteen ridges lined with clusters of slender, spreading, grayish spines. The flowers, which app

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Serpent Cactus; Mexican Night Blooming Cereus; Reina de Noche (Cereus serpentinus)

Serpent Cactus; Mexican Night Blooming Cereus; Reina de Noche (Cereus serpentinus)

(Named specifically from the snakelike stems) The six to fifteen entangled stems of this weird cactus resemble a serpent. They are eight to fifteen feet tall, about an inch in diameter, generally growing erect for about ten feet, then bending over and climbing for several feet. Each bears a dozen or so low ridges lined with clusters of slender spines a half-inch or so long, translucent white or dull cream color. The large brilliant blooms are eight to nine inches long and when fully open five to

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Giant Cactus or Sahuaro; Sage of the Desert (Cereus giganteus)

Giant Cactus or Sahuaro; Sage of the Desert (Cereus giganteus)

These are majestic trees thirty to fifty feet tall, with columnar massive trunks which grow singly ten to fifteen feet, then curve sharply erect in branches like a giant candelabrum. Twenty to twenty-five ridges run the entire length of the trunk, and these flutings expand as the plant fills with water and contract as it loses its moisture. They are covered with long sharp spikes which stick out like diminutive swords closely packed along the tops of the ridges. The flowers are night blooming, f

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Night Blooming Cereus; Reina de Noche; Queen of Night (Cereus Greggii)

Night Blooming Cereus; Reina de Noche; Queen of Night (Cereus Greggii)

(Named in honor of Dr. J. Gregg, student of cacti and plant explorer of Northern Mexico) One of the most beautiful of all cactus flowers. The plants grow two to three feet tall, rarely eight feet, the blackish grotesque stems densely fine hairy and loosely branched, resembling a crooked stick or a snake. They are very slender, a half-inch or so in diameter, and are fluted with four to six blackish gray-green ridges, lined with spines less than a fourth-inch long. The latter are arranged in such

1 minute read

Read Chapter

PECULIARITIES

PECULIARITIES

Cacti are not closely related to any other family of plants, and there is no certainty as to which group of plants they developed from. Their immediate ancestors perhaps have disappeared in the hazy past. They stand, therefore, alone. In this respect few other plants resemble them; only one or two other families, for instance the Ocotillos or Fouquieriaceæ, are in a like position. Cacti are generally thought of as limited to North and South America and the outlying islands. However, about eleven

2 minute read

Read Chapter

SPINES AND FLOWERS

SPINES AND FLOWERS

The spines of cacti are ever an interesting subject for study, and the very name “cactus” is suggestive of thorns. It is generally known that cactus spines develop from their bases and that they are impregnated with resin or a resinlike substance, while the spines of nearly all other plants (as for instance the plum) grow from their tips and are not resinous in character. A young growing cactus spine has a very soft yielding base while the tip is hard and sharp, and the sides retrorsely barbed.

7 minute read

Read Chapter

GROWTH

GROWTH

Several natural groups or genera go to make up the Pincushion Cacti, and of these the two most important in the great desert of the Southwest are the interesting plants of Coryphantha and Mammillaria. The name “Coryphantha” alludes to the plant’s habit of bearing the flowers at its top; Mammillaria is from mammilla , a nipple, referring to the tubercles or knobs of the plant. They are the smallest of the large and important cactus family (Cactaceæ), the Fantastic Clan, and their stems are single

3 minute read

Read Chapter

Foxtail Cactus (Coryphantha deserti)

Foxtail Cactus (Coryphantha deserti)

Southern California, Northwestern Arizona, and Southern Nevada The desert is noted for its many forms of mirage, and because of the rarefied or clear atmosphere due to lack of moisture, things are not always what they seem there. In the distance ahead numberless baby foxes appear to be moving slowly toward us, their heads and bodies hidden from view, their white and reddish tails waving in the hot desert breezes. Now our guide smiles, and as we drive closer and stop he points out several clumps

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Cream Cactus (Mammillaria MacDougalii)

Cream Cactus (Mammillaria MacDougalii)

Western and Southern Arizona, and Northern Sonora Especially is this true of the Cream Cactus, a very odd and interesting Pincushion, with a thick conical fleshy root which transplants easily and grows with little care from the hand of man. This fellow is broader than he is tall, four to ten inches in diameter, only two to six inches high, having a flat head around which radiate his clusters of thirteen or so cream-white short stout spines, and one or two pale red central thorns with purplish br

46 minute read

Read Chapter

Recurved Spine Pincushion (Coryphantha or Mammillaria recurvata)

Recurved Spine Pincushion (Coryphantha or Mammillaria recurvata)

Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora Hidden under a crevice in the rocks along our dusty track, we spy that little fellow, Coryphantha recurvata , with his dense coat of interlocking thorns, stout but slender and often hooked on the ends, recurving downward and inward toward the plant body with yellow and orange-brown hooks, and almost hiding the plants from our view. Rightly are the Pincushion Cacti named: with their tiny compactness and beautiful symmetry, they resemble nothing so much as an o

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Devil’s Pincushion (Coryphantha or Mammillaria robustispina)

Devil’s Pincushion (Coryphantha or Mammillaria robustispina)

Southern Arizona, Southwestern New Mexico, and Northern Sonora The Devil’s Pincushion is our largest and finest, resembling a pineapple in color and appearance, with his cone-shaped stems three to nine inches tall and three to six inches across, his big tubercles in spirals of thirteen or more rows, coarse yellowish thorns, and large fruit and seeds. The dozen or so spines in a comb-like radial arrangement from a common center, the areola, and graduated, are not alone beautiful and symmetrical,

55 minute read

Read Chapter

Slender Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria fasciculata [Mammillaria Thornberi])

Slender Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria fasciculata [Mammillaria Thornberi])

Southern Arizona The Slender Pincushion Cactus, typical native of the desert, is commonly so called because of the tiny slender stems an inch or less in diameter and seven or eight inches tall, growing in dense clumps of fifty to two hundred or more plants of all sizes; some growing from seed, some from offshoots of the axils near their bases. Out from the dozen or so rows of tubercles spring the white thorns with their black tips, and the central hooked spine twisted from its bulbous base; then

48 minute read

Read Chapter

Cream Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria Johnstonii)

Cream Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria Johnstonii)

Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora This gayly decorated Pincushion we see peering over solitary rocks and gladdening the hearts of the tired travelers along the desert track, with his pink and white daintiness of blossom and comb of brown and white thorns is another “Cream Cactus”; for it is said many an Indian has owed his life to the thick milk-white fluid which this unique growth yields to those who know the secret. This fat fellow looks like a huge coconut, with a green body, and stout tho

1 minute read

Read Chapter

SUNSET CACTUS (Mammillaria Grahamii)

SUNSET CACTUS (Mammillaria Grahamii)

Southern Arizona, Western Texas, Southern California, Southern Utah, and Mexico We have come more than two hundred miles on this second springtime trek across the ocean of sand and sagebrush and mesquite, with its brilliant flashes of color and fragrance, and still the clumps of dainty pincushions attract us almost against our will. As the sun completes his journey across the western skies, one of the most beautiful of all Nature’s creations claims our attention; this pincushion has earned a tit

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Brown Pincushion (Mammillaria Wilcoxii)

Brown Pincushion (Mammillaria Wilcoxii)

Southern and Southeastern Arizona The Brown Pincushion is one of the most attractive of the southwestern cacti, and is a rare creation indeed. This tiny cactus is two or three inches tall and about as broad, with a beautiful halo of red-brown thorns covering the whole plant, the hooked central spines and whitish radials slender, sharp, needlelike, with pointed tips. Through these the tiny flowers peep in two rows of thirty-five or forty bright purple or pink petals, recurved into the pretty corn

51 minute read

Read Chapter

Horned Toad Cactus (Mammillaria Mainæ)

Horned Toad Cactus (Mammillaria Mainæ)

Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora This rare little cactus was found in Arizona for the first time in 1931. Two or three inches high and nearly as broad, he seems to be sitting up in front of us like a horned toad, looking us over, his head flattened out in a slightly grotesque posture, pale green tubercles in thirteen or more spiral rows covering his flabby body, from which spring the dozen or so white and yellow radial thorns and the hooked central spines, also forming into a regular spiral

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Snowball Cactus (Mammillaria Oliviæ)

Snowball Cactus (Mammillaria Oliviæ)

Southern Arizona Next we see Oliviæ , the rose-tinted Snowball Pincushion, clad in a white coat of twenty-five or thirty radiating spines crowded together in a comb-like arrangement pressed closely against her body and looking like a snowball lying on the hot sand before us; the delicate rose-colored blossoms edged with a narrow band of white form a beautifully designed pincushion; even the stamens are deep rose, the styles light pink with olive-green stigmas, the fruit bright scarlet, and the s

31 minute read

Read Chapter

Green Flowered Pincushion (Mammillaria viridiflora)

Green Flowered Pincushion (Mammillaria viridiflora)

Southeastern Arizona ( Globe ) The Green Flowered Pincushion would make a lovely addition to my lady’s bower in a window rock garden. Not a desert species, it inhabits the higher mountain levels, often in oak woodlands; it is a rare beauty, difficult to find. Two or three inches in length and diameter, its stem and tiny bell-like flowers are both green, the radial spines loosely interlocking over the body of the plant, slender flexible thorns, white or reddish brown with sharp hooked tips. It is

28 minute read

Read Chapter

Showy Pincushion (Coryphantha or Mammillaria aggregata)

Showy Pincushion (Coryphantha or Mammillaria aggregata)

Southern Arizona, Western New Mexico, and Northern Sonora A handsome baby cactus, aggregata occurs usually in clumps, is two to five inches tall and almost as broad, with twenty or forty sharp needlelike thorns a half-inch or so long, tan or light pink, their ends forming twisted tips of white or reddish brown, and intermixed with fifteen or more rows of angled tubercles which bear the spine clusters. Beware of getting a “retrorsely barbed” thorn into the hand! Laceration ensues and much difficu

43 minute read

Read Chapter

Arizona Pincushion (Coryphantha or Mammillaria arizonica)

Arizona Pincushion (Coryphantha or Mammillaria arizonica)

Northern Arizona ( Kingman , Phoenix ) We have traveled over halfway across the premier cactus state, and are approaching the mighty Grand Cañon of the Colorado, that great fissure in the earth’s surface worn by water erosion throughout the ages. Hereabouts several new colonies of cacti are to be seen. The Arizona Pincushion is a conspicuous but not at all common fellow, easily recognized by his abundant dark-colored spines, in fact almost hidden by this dense growth of stout dangerous-looking r

46 minute read

Read Chapter

California Pincushion (Mammillaria tetrancistera)

California Pincushion (Mammillaria tetrancistera)

Northern and Central Arizona, Southern California, Southern Utah, and Southern Nevada Heading southward from the Grand Cañon we find in the area north of Phoenix, Arizona, a most beautiful distinctive Pincushion which we recognize as native to California. Indeed so abundant is it in the foothills back from Los Angeles, on the road from Big Bear Lake and out on the Mojave Desert, that this round cactus is known as California’s Pincushion. Two to twelve inches tall, about two and one-half inches b

43 minute read

Read Chapter

Black Spined Pincushion (Mammillaria Milleri)

Black Spined Pincushion (Mammillaria Milleri)

Northern Arizona ( Phoenix , Kingman ) Again the sun is fading over the western rim of the foothills, leaving a flood of glory in his wake, and we are glad to sight the famous old Superstition Mountains, which are not far from Phoenix, Arizona. We hope to find one more baby cactus before the twilight passes into the deepening shadows of night, for then the end of our long hot trek is at hand. Milleri is a handsome fellow of mesa and foothill, boasting rose-purple or pink flowers, a showy Pincush

52 minute read

Read Chapter

HABITATS

HABITATS

Along the highway from Lake Arrowhead in Southern California toward Victorville and Palm Springs, out on the Mojave Desert, southward to San Diego and old Mexico, we may find these odd little baby cacti blossoming forth in early spring into striking clumps of variegated bloom, dotting the landscape far and wide—their only mission in life, to look beautiful. For above the ordinary tourist trails as high as five thousand feet, farther down in sandy and gravelly places on the foothills and bajadas

1 minute read

Read Chapter

The Pincushion Group; Baby Cacti (Mammillaria and Coryphantha)

The Pincushion Group; Baby Cacti (Mammillaria and Coryphantha)

These are funny little ball-like plants, an inch to a foot in diameter and height, often broader than they are tall, the upper surface almost flattened, while the main part of the plant is a carrot-shaped fleshy root. The stems are mostly simple, sometimes branched; they grow singly or occasionally in clusters, and are not ribbed but studded with numerous tubercles spirally arranged. These are the smallest of the Cactaceæ, hence called the Baby Cacti, and are full of star-shaped spines with an e

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Foxtail Cactus; Desert Pincushion (Coryphantha deserti)

Foxtail Cactus; Desert Pincushion (Coryphantha deserti)

The Foxtail Cactus grows as a single stem or in clumps. The stems are cylindrical and two or three inches in diameter, with tubercles nearly an inch long and also cylindrical. The whole plant is covered with a dense growth of white radial spines with dark tips, and a group of six to a dozen central spines whitish below, and with the upper half black shading off to a reddish brown. This gives the plant a striking appearance. All of the spines are very stiff. The flowers are straw-colored, about a

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Cream Cactus (Mammillaria MacDougalii)

Cream Cactus (Mammillaria MacDougalii)

(Named for Dr. D. T. MacDougal, collector of western plants and Director of the Desert Botanical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution) The Cream Cactus grows from solitary stems or heads, and in many instances in clusters four inches high and six inches in diameter. The tops of the plants are flattened with the centers depressed, or often growing level with the ground. The older plants are much taller and broader. The tubercles are placed spirally and are a half-inch long. If injured they yiel

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Recurved Spine Pincushion; Bent Spine Pincushion (Coryphantha recurvata)

Recurved Spine Pincushion; Bent Spine Pincushion (Coryphantha recurvata)

(Named recurvata from the spines, which are bent down against the plant) The Recurved Spine Pincushion grows in clumps about three feet across, sometimes less, and has several stems four to eight inches long, which are globose, that is, longer than broad. These stems bear twenty-seven or so spirally arranged rows on which appear the angled tubercles. These rows or ridges also have the twenty-five radially grouped spines and one light yellow or translucent grayish yellow central spine. This arran

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Devil’s Pincushion; Pineapple Cactus (Coryphantha robustispina)

Devil’s Pincushion; Pineapple Cactus (Coryphantha robustispina)

The Pineapple Cactus is the largest of the Pincushion cacti, with its large tubercles and coarse spines. It grows as high as nine inches, and six inches in diameter, single or several stems in clumps. They form in hemispherical mounds as wide as eighteen inches, with the larger stems suggesting a pineapple. The spines are straight and stout and slightly curved, and grow in groups of eleven to fifteen, one of which, a central, is a little longer than the rest; erect, and of a dull straw color fad

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Slender Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria fasciculata—Mammillaria Thornberi)

Slender Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria fasciculata—Mammillaria Thornberi)

(Named fasciculata from its habit of growing in clumps; Thornberi in honor of one of the authors of this book, who rediscovered it) The Slender Pincushion Cactus grows in the form of slender stems in dense clusters of fifty to two hundred plants of many sizes, all crowded closely together. The stems are four to seven inches tall, and an inch or so in diameter. They seem to be thickened a bit in the middle and taper off toward the bases and tips. The tubercles are arranged in eight to twelve spir

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Cream Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria Johnstonii)

Cream Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria Johnstonii)

(Named for Ivan M. Johnston who collected the plant in Sonora) The Cream Pincushion Cactus grows from solitary stems having several thick roots, which, however, are not deeply implanted. In outline the stems are hemispherical or depressed globose and have a deep green color. There are many angular tubercles, all spirally arranged, and as many as thirteen white radial spines with brown tips. The central spines are about a half-inch long and red-brown; one is directed upward, and the other downwar

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Sunset Cactus; Common Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria Grahamii)

Sunset Cactus; Common Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria Grahamii)

(Named in honor of Colonel J. D. Graham of the United States Corps of Topographical Engineers) The Sunset Cactus, or Common Pincushion Cactus, is one of the most popular of the Pincushion Cactus species, perhaps because of its wide range from Texas to California and into old Mexico. It is quite symmetrical and small. It grows as a stem from two to ten inches tall and as much as two and one-half or three inches in diameter, in single stems or several together in a clump. They are cylindrical or g

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Brown Pincushion (Mammillaria Wilcoxii)

Brown Pincushion (Mammillaria Wilcoxii)

(Named in honor of General Timothy A. Wilcox of the United States Army, who collected many plants in Arizona and other western states) The Brown Pincushion Cactus grows with flabby stems, two or three inches tall with as great a diameter. It is hemispherical or subglobose, and somewhat depressed at the top. The tubercles are loosely set and spirally placed, narrow and conical. There are eighteen to twenty sharp, slender, needlelike, wide-spreading radial spines which interlock with those of the

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Horned Toad Cactus (Mammillaria Mainæ)

Horned Toad Cactus (Mammillaria Mainæ)

(Named for Mrs. F. M. Main, who first collected the plant near Nogales, Mexico) The Horned Toad Cactus grows from single stems, or several in loose clumps and is depressed globose or hemispherical, growing as short as two or three inches, with a diameter of three or four inches. The tubercles are of a pale green, arranged in thirteen spiral rows with compressed bases tapering above and upturned. The texture of the plant is flabby and loose. There are not many spines in this species, twelve wide-

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Snowball Pincushion (Mammillaria Oliviæ)

Snowball Pincushion (Mammillaria Oliviæ)

(Named Oliviæ in honor of Mrs. C. R. Orcutt, who shared her husband’s interest in these plants) The Snowball Pincushion is covered with a dense coat of white spines, looking much like a snowball lying on the ground. It grows on solitary stems or in some instances in clumps, is globose, and has twenty-five to thirty-five thorns. The plant is covered with radially placed spines about half an inch long, translucent white and somewhat twisted. There are four centrals in the spine groups. The flowers

48 minute read

Read Chapter

Green Flowered Pincushion (Mammillaria viridiflora)

Green Flowered Pincushion (Mammillaria viridiflora)

(Named from its green flowers, which are very uncommon among cacti) The Green Flowered Pincushion Cactus grows from single stems or in small clusters and is cylindrical or globose. The stems are two to four inches long and as much as three inches in diameter. This plant, also, has a flabby texture, with the tubercles arranged in eight to twelve spiral rows, which are disposed rather loosely. The radial spines, slender and needlelike and wide-spreading, loosely interlocking with those of the othe

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Showy Pincushion Cactus (Coryphantha aggregata)

Showy Pincushion Cactus (Coryphantha aggregata)

(Named from the plant’s habit of growing in clumps) This plant is a fine and showy Pincushion cactus growing from single stems or in clumps, six to fifteen inches in diameter across the top of the clump, the stems globose or cylindrical, two to four inches in diameter. The tubercles are arranged spirally in fifteen to seventeen rows, with twenty to forty radially placed spines in two series like the teeth of a comb. They are less than a half-inch long. There are six central spines in the more ma

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Arizona Pincushion Cactus (Coryphantha arizonica)

Arizona Pincushion Cactus (Coryphantha arizonica)

This cactus grows in dense clumps six inches to two feet or more across, with the heads close together. They are shortened, globose or cylindrical, one to two inches in diameter, and as high. The plants are almost hidden by the dense growth of reddish brown or almost black spines. There are from fifteen to thirty radially placed spines and three to seven stouter central thorns, all of which have yellowish bulbous bases, with red-brown or almost black tips. The flowers are about an inch and a hal

1 minute read

Read Chapter

California Pincushion (Mammillaria tetrancistera)

California Pincushion (Mammillaria tetrancistera)

(Named tetrancistera in allusion to the four central spines) The California Pincushion grows from single stems a foot high and two and one-half inches in diameter, or several in a cluster. Sometimes the stems are branched and cylindrical with a loose flabby texture. The root is narrow, conical, and fleshy. The tubercles are usually less than a half-inch long and loosely set in eight spiral rows. There are from forty to sixty-five radial spines placed in two whorls, slender and white with red-bro

58 minute read

Read Chapter

Black Spined Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria Milleri)

Black Spined Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria Milleri)

(Named for Dr. Gerrett S. Miller, Jr., who first collected it near Phoenix, Arizona) The Black Spined Pincushion, another of the Mammillaria genus of Cactaceæ, grows from single stems or several stems in clumps which are sometimes branched, and from two to nine inches high, two to three inches in diameter. The stems are globose or cylindrical with the tubercles crowded close together on their lower parts. These tubercles are about one-third of an inch long, and are arranged symmetrically in elev

3 minute read

Read Chapter

GROWTH AND HABITATS

GROWTH AND HABITATS

The Hedgehog cacti are of the easiest culture in out-of-door gardens, blossoming and fruiting profusely, but in greenhouse cultivation they rarely flower; they thrive in any ordinary clay loam with some gravel or coarse sand and with good drainage, and the desert species will even tolerate some alkali. The fruit looks like a mass of enormous bright red strawberries, and when cooled in the refrigerator, sliced and served with cream and sugar is delicious, and sought after as a great delicacy by t

2 minute read

Read Chapter

California Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus mojavensis)

California Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus mojavensis)

Southeastern California, Southern Utah, Southern Nevada, and Northwestern Arizona The California Hedgehog Cactus, or the Mojave Hedgehog, we espy first, and how could one miss seeing the scarlet bloom suffused with nopal red of this strange and beautiful Strawberry Cactus? The flaming blossoms, two or three inches long and an inch or so across, with short broad thick petals, borne singly though many grow on a single stem, remain open for several days at a time, and cause the California Hedgehog

55 minute read

Read Chapter

Golden Spined Strawberry Cactus (Echinocereus chrysocentrus)

Golden Spined Strawberry Cactus (Echinocereus chrysocentrus)

Southeastern California, Western Arizona, and Northern Mexico Here in Southern California thrives the Golden Spined Albino, a foot or so in height; the two-inch stems are furrowed with a dozen or so ridges, on the sides of which appear interlocking scallops, of a yellow or medium deep greenish cast. It has golden or light yellow spines like the pale yellow or cream-colored hair of the albino, hence the common name is quite apropos. It is to the circle of eight to thirteen radial spines with thei

52 minute read

Read Chapter

Indian Strawberry Cactus (Echinocereus Engelmannii)

Indian Strawberry Cactus (Echinocereus Engelmannii)

Western Arizona, Northern Mexico, Southern Utah, Southern Nevada, and Southern California Here is the Echinocereus Engelmannii , or Engelmann’s Hedgehog Cactus. This fine Strawberry Cactus may be found clinging to the foothills and low mountains in arid, sandy or gravelly desert land, growing in clumps of a few to twenty or more stems, six inches to a foot or more high and two or three inches through, rather cylindrical. This fine species is very appropriately named in honor of Dr. George Engelm

2 minute read

Read Chapter

Spiny Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus polyacanthus)

Spiny Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus polyacanthus)

Northern Mexico, Southern Arizona, and Texas It is in Northern Mexico that we glimpse the Spiny Hedgehog Cactus, or, as the scientist names him for his many spines, Echinocereus polyacanthus , a fierce thorny little fellow. He has fifteen sharp stout spines, somewhat flask-shaped at the bases, and spreading, at first pale yellow, then becoming pinkish gray or grayish purple with the tips mostly darker, deep yellow to blackish shades. His flame-red blossoms, sometimes tinged with orange, are call

38 minute read

Read Chapter

Salmon Flowered Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Leeanus)

Salmon Flowered Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Leeanus)

Northern Mexico A lustrous mass of flame-colored blossoms attracts our attention next, as we speed along the highway intent on making camp for the night across the United States line from Mexico. It is the Salmon Flowered Hedgehog Cactus, whose large, wide-spreading petals (two or three inches across the flower), are of a brilliant salmon hue, showy and attractive, and remain open for several days at a time in the spring, not even closing at night. The blossoms are borne near the tips of the ste

45 minute read

Read Chapter

Rose’s Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Rosei)

Rose’s Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Rosei)

Southeastern Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, and Northern Mexico We have crossed the boundary line into the United States at Nogales, Arizona, and now in the early morning sunlight are approaching the low Gila Range in southeastern Arizona. We have come to study a cactus which closely resembles that fierce little fellow, the Spiny Hedgehog Cactus, from which it differs in having very short and sparse hairs on the fruit and calyx tube. It has been described only recently, and thrives in western Texas

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Fendler’s Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Fendleri)

Fendler’s Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Fendleri)

Southeastern Arizona, Mexico, Western Texas, Utah, and New Mexico Like many of his kind Fendler’s Hedgehog Cactus blooms during the day and folds up his petals at night. There are eight to thirteen stout radial spines, spreading and occasionally appearing comb-like in arrangement, white fading to gray, and usually tipped with brown; also a very stout central thorn or two, sometimes an inch and a half long, dark-colored and curving upward. He has deep pink, rose and rose-purple bloom nearly four

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Rainbow Cactus (Echinocereus rigidissimus)

Rainbow Cactus (Echinocereus rigidissimus)

Southeastern Arizona and Sonora Here is a real beauty, Echinocereus rigidissimus , the lovely Rainbow Cactus, so called from the many colors of her spines arranged in bands a half-inch to an inch wide, one following another in quick succession extending around the plant. This beautiful desert growth is a great favorite in cactus collections, but unfortunately, when removed from her natural habitat, she pines away and is short-lived. The scientific name rigidissimus refers to her spines, which ar

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Short Spined Strawberry Cactus (Echinocereus Bonkeræ)

Short Spined Strawberry Cactus (Echinocereus Bonkeræ)

Southeastern Arizona We are nearing the beautiful Pinal Mountains in southeastern Arizona, nearing also the end of our journey over the broad expanse of the Arizona-California desert. After all it is one desert; California, Arizona—what are mere geographical lines or names in the desert land of plants and flowers, in that vast natural amphitheater of the great Southwest? Here in the long low rays of the afternoon sun we see at a distance the purple haze gathering over the mountain peaks, and we

3 minute read

Read Chapter

Crimson Flowered Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus coccineus)

Crimson Flowered Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus coccineus)

Northern Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado Yet one more of the lovely Strawberry group must be added to our list, growing far up in the towering mountains of northern Arizona and hence not included in this present trek. The Crimson Flowered Hedgehog Cactus is this flaming cactus flower, which grows generally at altitudes of five to seven thousand feet, its scarlet blossoms flashing here and there over the mountain slopes, or dotting the oak, juniper, and pine formations in dense masses of

1 minute read

Read Chapter

The Hedgehog or Strawberry Cactus Group (Echinocereus)

The Hedgehog or Strawberry Cactus Group (Echinocereus)

Plants grow with single stems or more often in clumps from three inches to a foot and a half or so tall, sometimes in large flat masses or in hemispherical mounds. The stems are simple, rarely branched, tubercled, and covered with a series of ridges running lengthwise from top to bottom; these ridges are almost hidden by a dense network of spines spreading out over the entire plant, and causing such a marked resemblance to the hedgehog that the group is named the “Hedgehog Cacti.” The Hedgehog C

2 minute read

Read Chapter

California or Mojave Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus mojavensis)

California or Mojave Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus mojavensis)

(Named for the Mojave Desert where it was discovered) The stems of the Mojave Hedgehog Cactus are as long as seven inches and of a pale green. The structure of the stems furnishes a dozen or so ribs, and this arrangement provides the necessary strength for support. The plant is covered with a whitish system of spines, slender and bent and in age becoming gray. The spines are radial; they are not long but are dangerous to touch. The flowers of this little plant are scarlet and remain open for sev

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Golden Spined Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus chrysocentrus—Echinocereus Engelmannii, variety chrysocentrus)

Golden Spined Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus chrysocentrus—Echinocereus Engelmannii, variety chrysocentrus)

(Named “chrysocentrus” from its beautiful golden or light yellow translucent spines) The physical structure of the Golden Spined Hedgehog Cactus consists of cylindrical stems to fifteen inches in height, tapering off towards the ends or tops and covered with many scalloped ridges on which the radial spines are placed—which, by the way, as usual in all cactus plants, are dangerous because they are so sharp and so thickly intertwined. The scallops of adjacent ridges are interlocking, and light gre

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Indian or Desert Strawberry; Engelmann’s Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Engelmannii)

Indian or Desert Strawberry; Engelmann’s Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Engelmannii)

(Named in honor of Dr. George Engelmann of St. Louis, one of the greatest authorities on cacti) The Indian or Desert Strawberry Cactus, like others of the Hedgehog clan, has a system of cylindrical stems which grow about fifteen inches tall, with a diameter of two to three inches, and the usual ridges along which are placed the many sharp spines. The stems are yellow or greenish yellow and of course fade a little with age. Quite regularly along the ridges there are radially placed spines an inch

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Spiny Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus polyacanthus)

Spiny Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus polyacanthus)

(Named polyacanthus from its many spines, though it is not as spiny as some other species) The Spiny Hedgehog Cactus consists of a cylindrical system of stems growing to ten inches in height, about two inches in diameter, with the usual system of ridges, nine to eleven or so. It has the same spine clusters along these ridges, radially arranged, and with the central spines the longer, nearly two inches in length. In this case the spine bases are flask-shaped and spreading. At first the colors are

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Salmon Flowered Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Leeanus)

Salmon Flowered Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Leeanus)

(Named Leeanus in honor of James Lee of England, who presented the type specimen to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew about 1842) The Leeanus , or Salmon Flowered Cactus, is identified by the general characteristics of the entire Hedgehog Group. It is cylindrical, with the stems tapered toward the tips, about four inches through near the base, and with ten to twelve rounded ridges with acute apexes. Along these ridges the usual system of spines is placed, with the shorter ones radially arranged a

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Rose’s Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Rosei)

Rose’s Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Rosei)

(Named for Dr. John Nelson Rose, Associate in Botany, United States National Museum, Washington, D. C.) Dr. Rose’s Hedgehog Cactus is also of the cylindrical stem variety, has nine to a dozen obtuse ribs in its structure, and is pale green or bluish green. The usual ridges prevail and are armored with clustering radial spines of unequal length, very sharp and needlelike. Both radials and the longer centrals are pinkish to brownish gray and have bulbous bases which spread at the roots. In most of

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Desert or Indian Strawberry Cactus; Fendler’s Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Fendleri)

Desert or Indian Strawberry Cactus; Fendler’s Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus Fendleri)

(Named in honor of August Fendler, who collected extensively in New Mexico and Arizona in the early days) The Indian Strawberry Cactus, also, is built up of cylindrical tapered stems, in groups of ten or twelve, of uneven heights up to a foot, with a dozen or so wavy ribs and clustered radially formed spines, a half-inch or so in length, wide-spreading and lying close to the stem. The stems are a medium deep green. The radials are of a white cast toning into brown at the tips, the stout centrals

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Rainbow Cactus; Cabecita del Viejo (Echinocereus rigidissimus)

Rainbow Cactus; Cabecita del Viejo (Echinocereus rigidissimus)

(Named rigidissimus from the stiff spines) The rigidissimus , or Rainbow Cactus, another of the cylindrically formed cacti, is easily identified by the noticeably stiff spines, which are very numerous. The stems grow to about fifteen inches tall, four inches or less in diameter with a rounded-off top, singly, or branched above. The cylinder is composed of about twenty-four ridges well covered with very sharp radials, but with no central spines, a characteristic uncommon in the Hedgehog group. Th

2 minute read

Read Chapter

Short Spined Strawberry Cactus (Echinocereus Bonkeræ)

Short Spined Strawberry Cactus (Echinocereus Bonkeræ)

(Named for Frances Bonker, one of the authors of this book) Bonkeræ , or the Short Spined Strawberry Cactus, is oblong-cylindrical with the tips somewhat depressed. It has low obtuse ridges, fewer than twenty, of a light green. These ridges are covered with a network of radial spines, the younger ones whitish, fading to gray-white, yellow or yellowish brown in age. The centrals are yellow-brown changing to red-brown in older thorns. All the spines are less than a half-inch long and vary in color

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Crimson Flowered Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus coccineus)

Crimson Flowered Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus coccineus)

(Named coccineus in allusion to the bright scarlet flowers) Coccineus , or the Crimson Flowered Hedgehog Cactus, is built up of stems four to seven inches long and about two inches in diameter. The tips of the stem are rounded and covered with radial spines no more than three-quarters of an inch long. It has three central spines which are much stronger than the radials, all thorns erect and spreading. They are flask-shaped at their bases and are white to yellowish white. The flowers are a beauti

3 minute read

Read Chapter

GROWTH AND HABITAT

GROWTH AND HABITAT

This chapter treats of the Opuntia genus of Cactaceæ, the well known group of Prickly Pears whose flower colorings are remembered as being so exquisite and delicate, so vivid and attractive both near and afar, the lovely tints and hues so well graduated from the bases of the petals to their tips and so symmetrical of distribution, that attention is at once focused upon them. There are about two hundred sixty species of the Opuntia , of which eighty-eight are in the United States, eighty-seven in

2 minute read

Read Chapter

Papago Fruit Cactus (Opuntia Blakeana)

Papago Fruit Cactus (Opuntia Blakeana)

Southern Arizona It is from Tucson, in the rocky foothills of southeastern Arizona, that we start on our long trip across the state and into old Mexico and California. The first of the lovely auroral coloring to attract our notice is the low spreading Prickly Pear called Opuntia Blakeana in honor of Dr. William Blake, who was formerly Geologist and Director of the College of Mines and Engineering of the University of Arizona. Forming in loosely branched clumps on the desert, eight feet or more a

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Delicate Prickly Pear (Opuntia delicata)

Delicate Prickly Pear (Opuntia delicata)

At altitudes of three to five thousand feet in the sandy and clay loams across southern Arizona one may see a prickly pear called delicata on account of its small size and its slender joints and spines. This baby Opuntia was only recently discovered and is considered a rare find, though little is known about its distribution. The tiny plants are sometimes but three inches high, growing to ten inches in different specimens, with one or several stems, long needlelike spines and large yellow flower

48 minute read

Read Chapter

Purple Prickly Pear (Opuntia santa rita)

Purple Prickly Pear (Opuntia santa rita)

WHIPPLE’S CHOLLA ( Opuntia Whipplei ) PURPLE PRICKLY PEAR ( Opuntia santa rita ) We are approaching the beautiful Santa Rita Mountains not far from Tucson, Arizona, nearing also the end of our long afternoon’s work, for the blue and purple haze that betokens the close of a hot desert day is gathering around the distant peaks and the sun hangs low over the horizon, seeming loath to bid farewell to mountain and desert cañons and to weary mortals here below. A symphony in purple and yellow greets o

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Smooth Prickly Pear (Opuntia laevis)

Smooth Prickly Pear (Opuntia laevis)

Southern Arizona The Smooth Prickly Pear is a dainty morsel, and how the cattle like to espy it in the few open spaces where it ventures to grow! For this cactus is nearly spineless and clings to the inaccessible cañon slopes where stock cannot prey upon it. In April and May it forms a striking picture on the desert canvas, a great patch of large, showy, lemon-colored blossoms peering forth from the jutting and protecting rocks on all sides of the steep mountain cliffs here in southern Arizona;

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Foothill Prickly Pear (Opuntia Toumeyi)

Foothill Prickly Pear (Opuntia Toumeyi)

Southern Arizona and Sonora Opuntia Toumeyi is a most attractive species and a distinctive type among cacti, covering the foothills of southern Arizona mountains with its waxy green joints and pink spines, sometimes brownish white thorns, and bright golden satiny blooms shading into red and orange at their bases and yellow-green toward the margins, suffused with purple-brown, a lovely harmony of color splashing across the painted canvas of brilliant desert flowers. Appearing in loose golden clum

34 minute read

Read Chapter

Cow’s Tongue (Opuntia linguiformis)

Cow’s Tongue (Opuntia linguiformis)

Southern Texas We leave the foothills and bajadas of southern Arizona and cross the Rio Grande into the prairie lands of southern Texas in search of a peculiar Prickly Pear growing in the vicinity of San Antonio, Texas; this Opuntia is widely cultivated now in cactus gardens, and one should not miss it even though it takes several hours to reach the destination. A striking plant on account of its long lance-shaped joints, Cow’s Tongue grows three to five feet tall with a spread of three to six f

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Discus Prickly Pear (Opuntia discata)

Discus Prickly Pear (Opuntia discata)

Northern Sonora and Southern Arizona DISCUS PRICKLY PEAR ( Opuntia discata ) We have crossed the international border once more, this time driving to Nogales, Arizona, then across the street into Nogales, Sonora, looking for a well-known Prickly Pear growing on the grassy mesas and bajadas of northern Sonora and of southern Arizona. Its name discata refers to the large circular and disklike joints of the stems, nearly a foot in diameter and about half an inch thick, which form the many ascending

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Engelmann’s Prickly Pear (Opuntia Engelmannii)

Engelmann’s Prickly Pear (Opuntia Engelmannii)

Northern Mexico, Arizona, and Texas Next in our journey across the land of the burning sun we find Engelmann’s Prickly Pear here in Northern Mexico—a very fine, large Opuntia which grows also in Texas and Arizona. This cactus like several others has been named in honor of Dr. George Engelmann, an early outstanding student of cacti. The plant is a rather large shrub six to twelve feet across and three to five feet tall, with many divergent and ascending branches from the base, these often rooting

51 minute read

Read Chapter

Long Spined Prickly Pear (Opuntia macrocentra)

Long Spined Prickly Pear (Opuntia macrocentra)

Northern Mexico, Central Arizona, and Western Texas The Opuntia macrocentra grows in sandy soil or clay loam at levels of three to five thousand feet. The plants are no more than three feet tall and are called macrocentra in allusion to the long spines, over three inches in length. The large showy blossoms are about three inches long with light yellow petals and bright red or orange-red centers. This flower also opens and closes in the daytime and lasts for one day only. The olive-green joints o

38 minute read

Read Chapter

Beaver Tail (Opuntia basilaris)

Beaver Tail (Opuntia basilaris)

Southeastern California, Western Arizona, Northern Sonora, Southern Nevada, and Southern Utah BEAVER TAIL ( Opuntia basilaris ) An odd and interesting little Prickly Pear, with its many spicules appearing each like a small fuzzy tail, and called by the natives Beaver Tail. FLAPJACK PRICKLY PEAR ( Opuntia chlorotica ) PORCUPINE PRICKLY PEAR ( Opuntia hystricina ) TEDDY BEAR CACTUS ( Opuntia Bigelovii ) In southeastern California we run across that odd and interesting little Prickly Pear with its

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Golden Prickly Pear (Opuntia Covillei)

Golden Prickly Pear (Opuntia Covillei)

Southern California GOLDEN PRICKLY PEAR ( Opuntia Covillei ) We are approaching the lovely Santa Monica range in Southern California. Mt. San Bernardino with his crown of snow towers in the distance; Mt. Baldy with his white head bald almost the entire year round, we perceive even farther west; and magnificent old San Gorgonio rears his stately crest far above all the surrounding peaks. This is one of the most beauteous spots in Southern California. The vast depths of that great natural amphithe

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Flapjack Prickly Pear (Opuntia chlorotica)

Flapjack Prickly Pear (Opuntia chlorotica)

Southern California, Arizona, Lower California, Northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Nevada We are nearing the end of our long quest for the brilliant Prickly Pears, having crossed the Arizona and California deserts on our way, dipped down into southern Texas and Northern Mexico, and now are intent on finding a distinctive growth here in southwestern California called Opuntia chlorotica . Light purple is the fruit of this typical cactus, the stems yellow or light green; straw-colored and brownish ar

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Porcupine Prickly Pear (Opuntia hystricina)

Porcupine Prickly Pear (Opuntia hystricina)

Northern Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada As we approach Los Angeles, California, we recall a peculiar little growth in northern Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico called Opuntia hystricina ; also the Porcupine Prickly Pear, its long slender needlelike spines, reddish or red-brown, giving the plant a shaggy appearance strongly resembling that bristling little animal. In fact the name of the species hystricina comes from the Greek word for “porcupine.” Only a foot or so tall, its thorny stems spread

2 minute read

Read Chapter

The Prickly Pear Group or Nopals (Platopuntia)

The Prickly Pear Group or Nopals (Platopuntia)

These plants are large or small shrubs, consisting of several jointed stems, the flat platelike joints or branches pear-shaped, elongated, thorny, but not distinctly tubercled, the clumps of joints from one to six or more feet in height, and from two to ten or twelve feet across. Spicules, sometimes called glochidia, are always present. The plants always have scalelike leaves which soon fall off. The Prickly Pears, like the Cholla, have spines of but one kind and of many different sizes, but the

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Papago Fruit Cactus (Opuntia Blakeana)

Papago Fruit Cactus (Opuntia Blakeana)

(Named in honor of Dr. William P. Blake, professor of geology in the University of Arizona and director of the College of Mines) Blakeana , or the Papago Fruit Cactus, is formed by stems a foot or so high which grow on the desert in clumps eight feet or more in diameter. The branches or joints are pear-shaped, about three inches wide and eight inches long, colored a medium green suffused with beautiful purples. The spicules and spines are very distinctive, the former growing in fringes and easil

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Delicate Prickly Pear (Opuntia delicata)

Delicate Prickly Pear (Opuntia delicata)

(Named from its small size and delicate structure) Delicata , or the Delicate Prickly Pear, is formed by stems three to ten inches long which are thin, wrinkled or dished joints of bluish green and purplish tones. These joints or stems are covered with bright yellowish spicules which seem to be arranged in circular bundles, and with three twisted spines one-fourth inch to three inches long, all three very slender, delicate and whitish. The flowers are two or three inches long and wide, of a brig

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Purple Prickly Pear (Opuntia santa rita)

Purple Prickly Pear (Opuntia santa rita)

(Named from the Santa Rita Mountains near Tucson, Arizona, in the vicinity of which it was discovered) Santa rita , or the Purple Prickly Pear, is a plant from two to five feet tall composed of jointed compact stems, a foot or less in length and half as wide, forming into a head. These joints are a bluish gray suffused with purple tones and are circular. This characteristic shape distinguishes the species from the ordinary Prickly Pear, which has oblong or elongated joints. The spicules form in

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Smooth Prickly Pear (Opuntia laevis)

Smooth Prickly Pear (Opuntia laevis)

(The specific name laevis means “smooth”) The Smooth Prickly Pear is practically devoid of the spines so prevalent in the cactus family. Many specimens reach a height of six feet; the joints or branches are from six to twelve inches long and loosely branched from the base, and are a yellowish green. The spicules are yellow and brown or a mixture of these two colors, while the one or two slender deflexed spines are white or tan. The flowers are large and quite showy, and with their lemon-yellow p

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Foothill Prickly Pear (Opuntia Toumeyi)

Foothill Prickly Pear (Opuntia Toumeyi)

(Named in honor of James W. Toumey, former professor of botany at the University of Arizona) The Foothill Prickly Pear is another of the clump-growing variety of the cactus clan, reaching to a height of about three feet. The stems form readily in large clumps along the foothills and low-lying mesas and swales in sunny exposures, where the plants do best. This species has the usual system of spicules and spines, the former a fourth-inch, the latter about three inches long. The spicules are tawny

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Cow’s Tongue; Lengua de Vaca (Opuntia linguiformis)

Cow’s Tongue; Lengua de Vaca (Opuntia linguiformis)

(All three names refer to the characteristic tongue-shaped joints) The Cow’s Tongue is an oddly formed Prickly Pear which grows tongue-shaped joints a foot to thirty inches long. These flattened, tongue-shaped joints are about as wide as a man’s hand and a little thinner, covered with well spaced spicules and spines. The edges of the joints are also fringed with needlelike thorns which are dangerous to handle. These light greenish stems or joints form into thickets growing from three to five fee

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Discus Prickly Pear (Opuntia discata)

Discus Prickly Pear (Opuntia discata)

(The names refer to the disk-shaped joints) The Discus Prickly Pear, or discata , also grows in clumps from three to five feet high and as much as ten feet across, and has numerous ascending and spreading branches. This plant, too, will make an excellent cactus hedge. Its spreading branches are the disk-shaped joints of the stems, nearly a foot in diameter and circular and platelike, of a pale blue-green which in some lights is changeable. These disks are covered with fringes of yellow and brown

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Engelmann’s Prickly Pear (Opuntia Engelmannii)

Engelmann’s Prickly Pear (Opuntia Engelmannii)

(Named in honor of Dr. George Engelmann, an early and outstanding student of cacti) Engelmann’s Prickly Pear is a large spreading shrub six to twelve feet in diameter growing to five feet in height, with distinctive “pancakelike” greenish joints, about the size of a medium-sized meat platter, but somewhat elliptical and ascending from the base. The general color of this plant is greenish. Its spicules are abundant in fringes along the joints, colored orange-yellow or brownish, while the four spi

50 minute read

Read Chapter

Long Spined Prickly Pear (Opuntia macrocentra)

Long Spined Prickly Pear (Opuntia macrocentra)

(The name macrocentra refers to the long spines) The Long Spined Prickly Pear is a plant about three feet tall growing from stems which ascend from the base. These joints are about the size of a man’s hand, circular or egg-shaped, and are of a dull olive-green suffused with purple, sometimes purple throughout. This plant has a system of spicules and spines arranged much in the usual cactus fashion. The spicules are formed in bundles, generally crescent-shaped and red-brown or tawny. The young sp

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Beaver Tail (Opuntia basilaris)

Beaver Tail (Opuntia basilaris)

The Beaver Tail, or Opuntia basilaris , gets both its common and its specific name from the appearance of the joints growing from the base, which are covered with spicules and resemble a beaver’s tail. This plant is usually about a foot tall and two or three feet across the spread of the rosettelike growth, with the fanlike or beaver-tail joints coming from the bases. These joints are about six by nine inches and of a blue-green suffused with purple and covered with fine white hairs. The older j

57 minute read

Read Chapter

Golden Prickly Pear (Opuntia Covillei)

Golden Prickly Pear (Opuntia Covillei)

(Named in honor of Dr. Frederick V. Coville, curator of the National Herbarium, Washington, D. C.) Covillei , or the Golden Prickly Pear, is a plant two to three feet tall and three to four feet in diameter growing with ascending or spreading branches in jointed form, which are seven to ten inches long and four to six inches across. The general color of the plant is pale blue-green. This plant often forms in thickets during growth and is covered with numerous brown spicules occurring in bundles

58 minute read

Read Chapter

Flapjack Prickly Pear (Opuntia chlorotica)

Flapjack Prickly Pear (Opuntia chlorotica)

(The name chlorotica refers to the light green coloring of the plant) The Flapjack Prickly Pear grows from three to six feet high from short trunks but a few inches long. The branches are erect, forming a rounded head which is quite attractive. The upper joints look very much like “flapjacks” from six to ten inches long and about as wide. The color of the plant is light yellow-green with sometimes a blue-green cast. The spicules are very conspicuous and are slender and very sharp, about one-quar

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Porcupine Prickly Pear (Opuntia hystricina)

Porcupine Prickly Pear (Opuntia hystricina)

(Named from its long reddish or brownish spines) The Porcupine Prickly Pear is formed of stems a foot or so high covered with finely grooved spines, long and slender and needlelike, up to four inches long, white and brownish red. The spicules occur in a crescent-shaped mass of light brown or yellowish colorings. The flowers are two to three inches long and as broad. They are very showy and bright purple or yellowish; they appear in April and May, while the fruit ripens in July and August. The Po

2 minute read

Read Chapter

GROWTH

GROWTH

Strange as it may seem, these fierce Cholla, called also Cane Cacti, belong to the same genus, Opuntia , with the Prickly Pears. These two groups form the two sections of the genus Opuntia , the Cylindropuntia representing the Cholla, the Platopuntia the Prickly Pears. One sees at a glance that the latter name applies to our platelike “flapjacks” of the desert, while the former name Cylindropuntia applies to the Cholla section because the joints are cylindrical and not flattened as in their cous

5 minute read

Read Chapter

HABITATS

HABITATS

Among the great groups of the cactus clan the Pincushion, the Hedgehog, the Giant Sahuaro, and the Bisnaga, or Barrel Cacti, have retreated before civilization. The first named cannot endure close grazing of the ranges, nor trampling by stock, nor being continually dug up and carried away from their native habitats. They are rapidly disappearing from their original haunts. This, notwithstanding the fact that they are the most highly evolved of all cacti. The Giant Cactus is too proud, too dignif

4 minute read

Read Chapter

California Cholla (Opuntia Parryi)

California Cholla (Opuntia Parryi)

Southern California The first member of the dangerous Cholla clan to greet us is the California Cholla, growing in the interior arid valleys of Southern California, seeking the gravelly or rocky soils of mesa and cañon, and thriving along the lower mountain levels. It is named in honor of Dr. C. C. Parry who first collected it in 1851. The sharp stout thorns, a half-inch to an inch or so long, yellow mellowing to brown with age and covered with thin light yellow sheaths, appear in thick spreadin

49 minute read

Read Chapter

Desert Christmas Cactus (Opuntia leptocaulis)

Desert Christmas Cactus (Opuntia leptocaulis)

Southern California, Arizona, Texas, and Northern Mexico The Desert Christmas Cactus is a flaming Cholla shrub with its mass of bright red fruit in winter a brilliant sight on the desert. The sprays of ripe fruit, sometimes used for Christmas decoration, would undoubtedly be in great demand were it not for the many fine reddish brown spicules which dry and in falling become lodged in the clothing and flesh. One of the writers has seen bushes on the desert several feet in height, as one solid mas

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Buckhorn Cholla (Opuntia acanthocarpa)

Buckhorn Cholla (Opuntia acanthocarpa)

Southern California, Western and Central Arizona, Southern Utah, Northern Mexico, and Southern Nevada Fierce and thorny cacti are Opuntia acanthocarpa , sometimes appearing on the broad desert land as dwarf trees four to six feet tall, again growing as densely spiny shrubs, impregnable fortresses defying man and beast. Over the arid sandy or gravelly soils of the southwestern desert, this fierce Cholla has fought his way and proved his right to existence, asking nothing from the hand of man and

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Golden Spined Jumping Cholla (Opuntia Bigelovii)

Golden Spined Jumping Cholla (Opuntia Bigelovii)

Southern and Western Arizona, Northern Sonora, Lower California, and Southern Nevada We are approaching one of the hottest parts of the California deserts, Death Valley, in search of perhaps the spiniest and most dangerous of all the Cholla, the Golden Spined Jumping Cholla. Four to eight feet tall, with numerous stout fantastic arms seemingly pointed at each tenderfoot tourist hurrying across the desert, like unholy messengers of evil omen, this remarkable cactus is very conspicuous in its rock

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Many Colored Tree Cholla (Opuntia versicolor)

Many Colored Tree Cholla (Opuntia versicolor)

Western and Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico A spectrum of coloring is Opuntia versicolor , with green or dull purple joints, green-yellow, red, purple, or deep maroon blossoms, not so very showy but a maze of tints and hues. The countless flowers give the landscape a rich tone in April and May, and the plants in their armament of mottled spines, brown, gray, and purple, are a picturesque sight at any season. The stems grow six to twelve feet tall, with a trunk two or three feet high from wh

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Popular Cholla (Opuntia tetracantha)

Popular Cholla (Opuntia tetracantha)

Southern Arizona This slender little Cholla is interesting because of its inch-long purple-brown and yellow flowers, unfolding once in the afternoon, then closing at night never to open again. Many of them seem to sulk on their heavy moisture-laden stems during the hot dry hours of the desert day, and then swiftly to unfold themselves and parade in evanescent beauty when the long shadows of a departing day begin to paint the mountain slopes, bidding the day to hurry and beckoning night to approa

59 minute read

Read Chapter

Prolific Tree Cholla (Opuntia arbuscula)

Prolific Tree Cholla (Opuntia arbuscula)

This Cholla in southern Arizona is considered very valuable as stock feed in time of drought. Arbuscula (the name means “a small tree”) will produce from sixty to seventy pounds of fruit in a season from one single tree, this fruit remaining on the plant in good condition for over two years; in fact if the trees are not grazed annually they break down under their enormous loads of fruit. Like others of this fantastic genus, the fruit upon falling to the ground develop roots and grow into new pla

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Thornber’s Cholla (Opuntia Thornberi)

Thornber’s Cholla (Opuntia Thornberi)

Opuntia Thornberi is quite distinct among Cane Cacti in having long tubercles and long angular joints, the latter a foot to two feet in length. Two to four feet tall, this Cholla covers the arid, sandy, or gravelly and rocky soils along the foothills and broad desert mesas in south central Arizona, a striking characteristic shrub, his fantastic arms irregularly whorled and appearing angular because of the long, prominent tubercles; the tri-colored flowers, yellow and green and purple-red, nearly

59 minute read

Read Chapter

Spiny Tree Cholla (Opuntia spinosior)

Spiny Tree Cholla (Opuntia spinosior)

Northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Southern Arizona We go south into the rocky foothills and bajadas of Northern Mexico, then up to altitudes from three to five thousand feet to find this brilliant and beautiful cactus, the Spiny Cholla, called also Tasajo by the natives; and given the specific title of spinosior , meaning “more spiny.” Six to fifteen feet, spinosior towers into the air, crowned by a brilliant rainbow of color, the large lovely blooms, almost three inches long and nearly as wide,

54 minute read

Read Chapter

Jumping Cholla (Opuntia fulgida)

Jumping Cholla (Opuntia fulgida)

Northern Mexico and Southern Arizona Along the highway in Northern Mexico here and there dwarf trees appear, five to fifteen feet high, with stout woody trunks branching quite near their bases into many spreading candelabralike arms, covered with striking rose-purple bloom. A handsome tree Cholla, Opuntia fulgida is called also the “Jumping Cholla” from the sharp spiny joints which are very loosely attached, so that one can scarcely walk among the plants without some of the joints “jumping forth

2 minute read

Read Chapter

Cursed Cholla (Opuntia Stanlyi)

Cursed Cholla (Opuntia Stanlyi)

Northern Mexico, Southern Arizona, and New Mexico Prostrate stems worming their way in impenetrable patches of six to twelve feet across the sandy soils of southern Arizona and Northern Mexico, a creeping, crawling mass of rough hairy spines and sheaths, stout sharp swords dangerous and effective in harshly repulsing advance of animal or ignorant human, is the Devil Cactus or Cursed Cholla, a veritable fortress on the desert. A welcome retreat for small rodents, snakes, and lizards, this terribl

39 minute read

Read Chapter

Whipple’s Cholla (Opuntia Whipplei)

Whipple’s Cholla (Opuntia Whipplei)

Northern Arizona, New Mexico, Western Colorado, and Southern Utah One more of the fierce Cholla group must claim our attention, bringing to a close our search for these cruel, relentless growths, awful to contemplate in many instances yet strangely enticing as well. It is a cultivated specimen of a low and typical Cane Cactus which grows wild in northern Arizona, New Mexico, and spreads north even into southern Utah and Colorado, thriving at altitudes from five to seven thousand feet in loamy so

2 minute read

Read Chapter

The Cholla Group, or Cane Cacti (Cylindropuntia)

The Cholla Group, or Cane Cacti (Cylindropuntia)

The Cholla has a fierce armor of thorns, long and stout, sharp and dangerous, a group of Cholla on the mesas comprising a veritable fortress of the desert. These spines are of one kind but of different sizes, and they are sheathed. On account of their sheathed thorns the Cholla are the most dangerous of all the cactus groups, and feared most of all Cactaceæ. The spines vary from an inch or less to three inches or more in length, and occasionally are half an inch or more through. The stems of the

2 minute read

Read Chapter

California Cholla (Opuntia Parryi)

California Cholla (Opuntia Parryi)

(Named in honor of Dr. C. C. Parry, who first collected it in 1851) The California Cholla is a very interesting and fascinating plant and grows as several stems two to four feet tall, branching from the base and quite erect. These stems are cylindrical yellow-green joints six to twenty-four inches long and an inch thick. They bear the usual cactuslike spicules and spines. The spicules are a light yellow semicircular mass, while the five to twenty sharp, slender needlelike spines are crowded toge

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Desert Christmas Cactus; Tasajillo (Opuntia leptocaulis)

Desert Christmas Cactus; Tasajillo (Opuntia leptocaulis)

Leptocaulis , or the Desert Christmas Cactus, is a plant growing as a dense low shrub only a foot high in many instances with numerous stems or joints ascending from the base, and in clumps three or four feet across. The little joints are sometimes only an inch long, growing to four inches in many cases, and are gray-green covered by numerous brown spicules forming in bundles. One sharp, slender, flattened, bent spine is present, a half-inch to two inches long, with a tan body and a yellow tip,

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Buckhorn Cholla (Opuntia acanthocarpa)

Buckhorn Cholla (Opuntia acanthocarpa)

(Named acanthocarpa from its very spiny fruit) The Buckhorn Cholla is a dwarf tree or shrub composed of many stems ascending from the base and forming into a compact head of dangerously thorny branches, very woody in appearance. These branches or joints are four inches or more in length, cylindrical and yellow-green. They are tubercled and have a fringe of yellowish or red-brown spicules, very short and sharp, and many loose clusters of fierce red-brown thorns about an inch long, partly sheathed

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Golden Spined Jumping Cholla; Teddy Bear Cactus (Opuntia Bigelovii)

Golden Spined Jumping Cholla; Teddy Bear Cactus (Opuntia Bigelovii)

(Named for Dr. J. M. Bigelow, an early enthusiastic student of southwestern botany) The Golden Spined Jumping Cholla, or Teddy Bear Cactus, is a very conspicuous and attractive plant among the Cholla species, and is the spiniest of all this clan, growing as high as twelve feet, and with a very tough stout main trunk sometimes eight feet tall and three or four inches in diameter, from which appear numerous ascending branches forming a dense rounded head. The joints or branches are three to six in

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Many Colored Tree Cholla (Opuntia versicolor)

Many Colored Tree Cholla (Opuntia versicolor)

(Named from the many colors of its joints and flowers) The Many Colored Tree Cholla, or Opuntia versicolor , grows as a main trunk two or three feet high, with many ascending intricate branches which form a broad rounded head from five to ten feet across at the widest part and six to twelve feet high. The bark is coarse and fissured, gray or tan, latterly scaling off. The joints or branches are from two to ten inches long, are green or brown and tubercled. The spicules form in a flattened mass a

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Popular Cholla (Opuntia tetracantha)

Popular Cholla (Opuntia tetracantha)

(Named tetracantha from the four spines commonly present) The Popular Cholla is a loose irregular growth about four feet tall with several stems coming from the base, but not jointed. The brownish spicules are formed in bundles. There are from one to four spines, all less than an inch long, slender and stiff and brownish or light brownish gray, with one spine longer and stouter than the others, and covered with thin straw-colored sheaths. The flowers are of a pale yellow-green suffused with purp

51 minute read

Read Chapter

Prolific Tree Cholla (Opuntia arbuscula)

Prolific Tree Cholla (Opuntia arbuscula)

(The name arbuscula means “a small tree”) Arbuscula , or the Prolific Tree Cholla, grows from three to eight feet tall and has a short stout trunk three to six inches in diameter. There are several branches which are intricately arranged, forming a rounded head from six to ten feet across; the gray-brown bark is coarse and fissured. The branch-joints are from two to ten inches long or longer, and are bright green. The light brownish spicules form as a small tuft. Usually only one or two spines a

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Thornber’s Cholla (Opuntia Thornberi)

Thornber’s Cholla (Opuntia Thornberi)

(Named in honor of Professor J. J. Thornber, botanist of the University of Arizona and one of the authors of this book) Thornber’s Cholla is a shrub growing from two to four feet tall, with fantastic branches irregularly whorled and long angular joints six to twenty-four inches in length and yellowish green. It appears waxy, is densely covered with long tubercles or knobs, and has short light-colored spicules. The spines are three to twelve, one-quarter inch or less in length, and very sharp. Th

52 minute read

Read Chapter

Spiny Tree Cholla; Tasajo (Opuntia spinosior)

Spiny Tree Cholla; Tasajo (Opuntia spinosior)

(The name spinosior means “more spiny,” referring to the many spines of the joints of this species) The Spiny Tree Cholla grows to a height of fifteen feet and has a woody trunk several feet long with ascending branches forming into a broad irregular open head, and with tubercled joints three to nine inches long, which are set in spiral rows. They are gray-green suffused with yellow and purple. The straw-colored spicules are formed in bundles, while the six to fifteen spines are gray suffused wi

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Jumping Cholla (Opuntia fulgida)

Jumping Cholla (Opuntia fulgida)

(Named fulgida from the silvery sheathed spines, which glisten in the strong desert sunlight) The Jumping Cholla is a handsome dwarf tree growing as high as fifteen feet, deeply fissured, with a stout woody trunk as much as four feet long, and with candelabralike branches of blackish or brownish bark. These branches form the broadly rounded head of the tree. The joints are three to six inches long, succulent and easily broken off, and covered with tubercles in a spiral arrangement. The spicules

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Cursed Cholla; Devil Cholla (Opuntia Stanlyi)

Cursed Cholla; Devil Cholla (Opuntia Stanlyi)

(Named for J. M. Stanly, artist of the Mexican Boundary Survey) The Cursed Cholla, or Devil Cholla, is very appropriately named. Plants grow with prostrate and creeping stems, forming impenetrable masses several feet across. The stems are from a common center with the tips ascending, and the joints, which are as much as six inches long, are club-shaped and tubercled. The spines are very numerous and stout, also very sharp and swordlike, and will cause grief unless one is very careful. They grow

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Whipple’s Cholla (Opuntia Whipplei)

Whipple’s Cholla (Opuntia Whipplei)

(Named after Lieutenant Whipple, in charge of the Whipple Expedition of 1853 and 1854) Whipple’s Cholla grows farther north than any other species of Cholla, and reaches three feet in height, composed of several stems that form a low compact clump. The joints are two to ten inches long, are a light green suffused with purple, and are covered with tubercles arranged in spirals. The tan spicules are very short, about an eighth of an inch long and appear in tufts. The two to five spines are a half-

3 minute read

Read Chapter

GROWTH AND HABITATS

GROWTH AND HABITATS

The genus Echinocactus is thought to have originated on the great arid plateaus of Mexico and to have extended northward to the southwestern borders of the United States, where as many as forty species are known to grow. The group is a large one, including as many as one hundred forty species in the two countries where they are most abundant. There are no varieties in Central America, but a number in the driest parts of South America, thriving always in the gravelly or stony soils along the foot

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Interlacing Spine Cactus (Echinocactus intertextus)

Interlacing Spine Cactus (Echinocactus intertextus)

Southeastern Arizona, Southwestern Texas, and Northern Mexico Echinocactus intertextus , the Interlacing Spine Cactus, signals our attention first, a rare and brightly flowered little fellow. It is interesting to note that the name intertextus refers to the numerous radial interlacing spines covering this Visnagita in two or three whorls, and on the older plants forming a dense lacework over the entire plant. Only an inch and a half tall in many cases, sometimes reaching the height of six inches

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Purple Spined Visnagita (Echinocactus erectocentrus)

Purple Spined Visnagita (Echinocactus erectocentrus)

Southeastern Arizona Purple Spined Visnagita is a gayly tinted beauty which grows only in limited areas. Indeed not only is it rare and beautiful but the species is fast disappearing; indicative perhaps that Nature in her wise prescience of coming events is already taking care of the problem of overproduction. The flowers are white or flesh-color diffused with pink, most delicately shaded sometimes with a hint of lavender, and are very lovely and fragrant though they do not open fully; they come

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Traveler’s Friend (Echinocactus Covillei)

Traveler’s Friend (Echinocactus Covillei)

Southern and Western Arizona, and Sonora The Traveler’s Friend! This name sounds rather interesting, and upon examination Echinocactus Covillei is found to merit his friendly title. If one gingerly cuts off the top of the plant, crushing the fleshy part into a pulpy mass with a handy stick, cool refreshing water is revealed, fit for drinking and sufficient for one person. This Bisnaga has proven a good friend to the desert wanderer, but it is Nature, the marvelous architect, who is our real frie

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Turk’s Head (Echinocactus horizonthalonius)

Turk’s Head (Echinocactus horizonthalonius)

Southern Arizona, Northern Mexico, and Western Texas This species grows sparingly in arid, rocky, or stony soil of slopes and hillsides from western Texas to southern Arizona and adjacent Mexico. It differs from others of its kind in the coloring of the blossoms, which are the most delicately tinted of all the cactus flowers, pale rose to deep pink suffused with lavender hues, and in the light blue-green of the stems, which are nearly a foot high and about half as wide; also in the spiny charact

47 minute read

Read Chapter

Candy Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus Wislizeni)

Candy Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus Wislizeni)

The stems of this peculiar growth are used largely in making the highly priced cactus candy, the fleshy part sliced and soaked in water overnight, then cooked until tender in a strong sugar solution and allowed to harden and crystallize. A most tasty delicacy is produced which is sold all over the world as “cactus candy,” and so popular is this rare sweet both in the East and abroad as well as among tourists to the desert that the industry threatens to eradicate Wislizeni and several other speci

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Nigger Head (Echinocactus Le Contei)

Nigger Head (Echinocactus Le Contei)

Western Arizona, Southern Utah, Southern Nevada, Southern California, Lower California, and Sonora This species, also, is given the name “Nigger Head” because the spines and bristles are curled and bent down closely against its trunk like a “nigger’s head” with coarse curly hair. To be sure, one never has seen a negro with pink hair, but this Nigger Head Cactus has a coat of interlocking densely fine hairy spines of lovely pink and mottled rose shades, some pointing upward, some downward, some l

2 minute read

Read Chapter

Pink Flowered Visnagita (Echinocactus Johnsonii)

Pink Flowered Visnagita (Echinocactus Johnsonii)

Eastern California, Northwestern Arizona, Western Utah, and Southern Nevada This very attractive and interesting Visnagita rarely grows in any abundance. It is quite outstanding because of its symphony of color radiating rose and gray and purple hues from the thorns, and the large deep pink blooms two and one-half inches long and broad, bell-shaped panicles clustering in a mass of cream-white hairs. The erect ascending spines grow straight or slightly curved, in dense layers, and sharp. Johnsoni

31 minute read

Read Chapter

Golden Spined Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus Rostii)

Golden Spined Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus Rostii)

Southeastern California, Western Arizona, and Lower California Echinocactus Rostii , or the beautiful Golden Spined Barrel Cactus, with its bright yellow stamens and petals tinged with red, when in bloom, and the striking golden-yellow spines, appears at a distance like a bundle of straw. The flowers, an inch or so long and about as broad, are borne in a circle clustering around the tops of the stems, which grow singly or in clumps of two to ten, four to nine feet high according to age; the spin

57 minute read

Read Chapter

California Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus acanthodes)

California Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus acanthodes)

Southeastern California, Lower California, and Southern Nevada The California Barrel Cactus, Echinocactus acanthodes , grows in arid, gravelly or rocky foothills and arroyos on the deserts of southeastern California in the Imperial Valley, and in northern Lower California. This species grew formerly in great abundance on the rocky, gravelly mesas of the Coachella Desert near Palm Springs, California; now, however, many of the fine large specimens have been removed, and the sticky pulp of the ste

56 minute read

Read Chapter

Many Hooked Visnagita (Echinocactus polyancistrus)

Many Hooked Visnagita (Echinocactus polyancistrus)

Southeastern California, Western Arizona, and Southern Nevada The meaning of polyancistrus is “many fishhooks”; but why should there be fishhooks on the desert? Echinocactus polyancistrus is a very interesting and showy Visnagita growing on mesas and deserts; though widely distributed, it never appears in abundance, and is rather rare. It is densely and conspicuously spiny, covered with sharp needlelike thorns placed radially, a half-inch long or longer, dangerously hooked, spreading, and very f

52 minute read

Read Chapter

Green Stemmed Visnaga (Echinocactus viridescens)

Green Stemmed Visnaga (Echinocactus viridescens)

Southern California and Lower California Echinocactus viridescens is a small Bisnaga growing in the vicinity of San Diego, California, and is found along the beaches there, and in the dry ridges and hills of Lower California. It gets its name from the greenish flowers and stems ( viridescens is Latin for “growing green”). The stems grow a little over a foot high; the numerous stout sharp thorns are finely hairy, encircling the plants in red and yellow and rose-pink bands of coloring; while the b

40 minute read

Read Chapter

Harem Cactus (Echinocactus polycephalus)

Harem Cactus (Echinocactus polycephalus)

Southern California, Western Arizona, Nevada, and Utah The many-headed Barrel Cacti are composed of the older stems, a couple of feet or so in height, each surrounded by twenty to forty smaller ones, and we might give this group the name “Harem Cactus.” These many-stemmed Barrel Cacti form large hemispherical mounds three to five feet across with the largest stems or trunks in the center. Hence the suggestion of an old man and his many wives; hence also the designation “Mound Cactus.” The group

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Mexican Fruit Cactus (Echinocactus hamatacanthus)

Mexican Fruit Cactus (Echinocactus hamatacanthus)

Northern Mexico, Southern Texas, and New Mexico This quite odd little Barrel Cactus is highly prized by the Mexicans and Indians who know it for its fine fruit, which is slender, two or three inches long, and very sweet with many dark brown seeds. The ripe fruit gradually dries, and is eaten as a sweetmeat without any sort of treatment; firm and sweet and very sugary, it is considered a rare delicacy by the hundreds of thousands of tourists who journey to the Southwest in quest of unique desert

48 minute read

Read Chapter

Mexican Lime Cactus (Echinocactus Pringlei)

Mexican Lime Cactus (Echinocactus Pringlei)

Central Mexico ( Coahuila ) And here is the Mexican Lime Cactus, which is used for a refreshing drink that is similar to the well-known limeade, and often called the Lemonade Cactus. A little Mexican cactus juice, some sugar and ice-water, a hot day, and you have a cool delightful drink. This species is made striking by its great size, mature plants reaching a height of nine feet, with several stems forming in clumps or growing singly, and by the light red hooked spines which give the stems a re

43 minute read

Read Chapter

Giant Visnaga (Echinocactus visnaga)

Giant Visnaga (Echinocactus visnaga)

Central Mexico ( San Luis Potosí ) It is late on a sultry day in June and we are speeding along the dusty highways of Central Mexico, intent on our quest for a certain queer specimen of the weird Fantastic Clan, when the long low shadows of the afternoon begin to slant over the singular cactus growths for which we have been searching, and the blue haze of a waning day is seen to gather over the distant mountains. We pause in our hurried flight across the Mexican bajadas , as a strange and lurid

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Whipple’s Visnagita (Echinocactus Whipplei)

Whipple’s Visnagita (Echinocactus Whipplei)

Northern Arizona, Northern Utah, Western Colorado, and New Mexico But one more growth of this strange cactus land must claim our attention ere the sun completes his journey across the western skies and the goddess of Evening draws the mantle of night over the land of the burning sun. It is a Bisnaga native to the foothills and high mesas of northern Arizona and Utah, western Colorado, and New Mexico, but we cannot take the time on this trip to study in northern parts. Science tells us that Whipp

1 minute read

Read Chapter

The Barrel Cactus Group; Visnaga and Visnagita (Echinocactus)

The Barrel Cactus Group; Visnaga and Visnagita (Echinocactus)

Small or large plants that are globular or cylindric and strongly ribbed with sharp stout thorns, suggesting a barrel in size and shape, from a foot to three or four feet high, sometimes reaching nine feet, growing singly or in groups of two to four or more. The central spines are the strongest, usually one or more hooked; the radial spines also are stout, the radial bristles or threads if present are somewhat firm or rather weak in texture. The ridges run lengthwise over the whole plant body, a

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Interlacing Spine Cactus (Echinocactus intertextus)

Interlacing Spine Cactus (Echinocactus intertextus)

(Named from the numerous interlacing or overlapping radial spines) The Interlacing Spine Cactus looks very much like a flattened cylinder, growing from one and one-half to six inches high and to four inches in diameter. It has thirteen spiral ribs spaced about three-quarters of an inch apart, obtuse and sometimes rounded. The ridges of these are dull green and scurfy. The areolas are very short and crowded close together. There are from twenty to thirty radial spines, a half-inch long, which rad

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Purple Spined Visnagita (Echinocactus erectocentrus—Echinomastus erectocentrus)

Purple Spined Visnagita (Echinocactus erectocentrus—Echinomastus erectocentrus)

(Named erectocentrus from the erect central spines) The stems of the Purple Spined Visnagita grow singly and to the height of nine inches, are conical or cylindrical, and have twenty or more ridges which are spirally arranged. The areolas are set closely together and are gray-green. There are as many as sixteen radial spines, less than an inch long, which rotate like the spokes of a wheel. The central spines, of which there are only one or two, are less than one inch long and erect. All of the s

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Traveler’s Friend; Traveler’s Compass (Echinocactus Covillei—Ferocactus Covillei)

Traveler’s Friend; Traveler’s Compass (Echinocactus Covillei—Ferocactus Covillei)

(Named in honor of Dr. F. V. Coville, curator of the National Herbarium, Washington, D. C.) The Traveler’s Compass has a peculiarity which helps to identify it, usually leaning toward the southwest, and this gives it the common name. The plants grow as solitary stems to the height of about five feet and the diameter of a foot and a half. The plants are globose when young, gradually becoming cylindrical and having as many as thirty ribs, two inches high and three inches apart. The rib crests are

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Turk’s Head (Echinocactus horizonthalonius)

Turk’s Head (Echinocactus horizonthalonius)

(The specific name horizonthalonius is of unknown origin but no doubt refers to the position of the spines) The Turk’s Head has as many as eight radial spines, three to five of which grow directly upward and two to four extend laterally. Many of them grow to one and one-half inches long. The central spines are much stouter and longer, extending outward, also, and downward, about two inches in length. All the thorns are quite stout, are strongly cross-ridged and curved, and in many instances are

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Fishhook Cactus; Candy Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus Wislizeni—Ferocactus Wislizeni)

Fishhook Cactus; Candy Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus Wislizeni—Ferocactus Wislizeni)

(Named in honor of Dr. A. Wislizenus, who was in charge of a botanical expedition to the Southwest in 1848) The Candy Barrel Cactus is a very fine plant which grows as high as seven feet and has twenty to thirty ridges running lengthwise. The lower half of the areola is fringed with a dozen or so threadlike bristles about two inches long. Along the ridges are grouped the spines, and in each group it will be noticed that the lowest spine is the longest and has a good strong hook at the tip. The f

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Nigger Head (Echinocactus Le Contei—Ferocactus Le Contei)

Nigger Head (Echinocactus Le Contei—Ferocactus Le Contei)

(Named in honor of Dr. John Lawrence Le Conte, who discovered it on the lower Gila River in Arizona) The Nigger Head Cactus has spines or bristles which interlock and form an impenetrable coat. The plant grows from a single stalk or stem, a foot and a half in diameter, as high as seven feet, and with twenty to twenty-four ridges. The ten to fourteen grouped bristles are placed radially, are about two inches long and are white or mottled much like a negro’s fuzzy hair. There are also from nine to

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Pink Flowered Visnagita (Echinocactus Johnsonii—Ferocactus Johnsonii)

Pink Flowered Visnagita (Echinocactus Johnsonii—Ferocactus Johnsonii)

(Named in honor of Joseph Ellis Johnson, an amateur botanist of southern Utah) The Pink Flowered Visnagita grows from single cylindrical stems one foot tall or less and three to four inches in diameter, with its ribs of pale green well hidden by the dense layer of interlaced spines which are so prevalent in the Ferocactus group. These dense spines are a gray rose-purple, or a light yellow. The bell-shaped flowers are about three inches long and are composed of quite small oblong petals, deep pin

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Golden Spined Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus Rostii—Ferocactus Rostii)

Golden Spined Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus Rostii—Ferocactus Rostii)

(Named Rostii in honor of E. P. Rost, who discovered the plant) The Golden Spined Barrel Cactus grows singly or in small clumps, from four to nine feet high with stems as much as ten inches in diameter. Their fifteen to twenty-two ridges are about two inches apart. The spines are grouped in clusters about an inch apart, with six to nine radial bristles an inch and a half long which are cream-colored. There are five to seven radial spines which are cross-ridged, nearly two inches long and a light

1 minute read

Read Chapter

California Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus acanthodes—Ferocactus acanthodes)

California Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus acanthodes—Ferocactus acanthodes)

(The specific name means “thorny”) The stems of the California Barrel Cactus generally grow singly, as high as nine feet, and one foot in diameter, with seven or more grouped radial bristles, which are very sharp and needlelike, fringing the twenty-seven to thirty ridges along the stems. These bristles are about two inches long and a grayish yellow. In the spine system there are four to six radials that are stout, and four central spines that are wide-spreading and slightly hooked and cross-ridg

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Many Hooked Visnagita; Fishhook Cactus (Echinocactus polyancistrus—Sclerocactus polyancistrus)

Many Hooked Visnagita; Fishhook Cactus (Echinocactus polyancistrus—Sclerocactus polyancistrus)

(The name polyancistrus means “many fishhooks”) The Many Hooked Visnagita, or Fishhook Cactus, grows from single stems as high as one foot, and four inches in diameter. The plant has from thirteen to seventeen ribs, on which twenty or more sharp needlelike radial spines appear, white, and a half-inch or so long. The central spines number six to ten, from one to five inches long, and are flattened with the lower thorns a brownish purple. All the spines are dangerously hooked and formidable, resem

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Green Stemmed Visnaga (Echinocactus viridescens—Ferocactus viridescens)

Green Stemmed Visnaga (Echinocactus viridescens—Ferocactus viridescens)

( Viridescens means “growing green”) The Green Stemmed Visnaga is another of the single growths, from five to fifteen inches high and a foot or so in diameter, and with thirteen to twenty ribs of glossy deep green or medium green, wavy-crested, and fringed with eight to twenty grouped radial spines about three-quarters of an inch long, very stout and sharp; these radials are slightly curved, with translucent yellow tips and reddish bodies. The four central spines are a dull gray-pink, sometimes

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Harem Cactus; Mound Cactus (Echinocactus polycephalus)

Harem Cactus; Mound Cactus (Echinocactus polycephalus)

(Named polycephalus from the many heads or stems of the plant) The Harem Cactus is so called because on the desert these plants grow in great clumps or colonies, one in the group much taller than all the others. These large clumps have forty or more stems in mounds five feet or so across, and from six to eighteen inches tall, with one or more large stems in the center of each mound. Some of these stems are as much as eight inches in diameter. On them appear twelve to eighteen ridges whose crests

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Mexican Fruit Cactus (Echinocactus hamatacanthus—Echinocactus longihamatus)

Mexican Fruit Cactus (Echinocactus hamatacanthus—Echinocactus longihamatus)

(Named hamatacanthus from the hooked spines) This species grows with solitary stems, only occasionally two to three together, a foot or so high, nearly a foot through and cylindrical. Along the stems run thirteen to seventeen quite prominent ribs covered with coarse tubercles, and a dozen or so two-inch radial spines and one to four central thorns, three to six inches long. These grooved spines are all crooked and twisted, also quite slender and brittle, sometimes breaking or splitting lengthwis

56 minute read

Read Chapter

Mexican Lime Cactus; Limos de Visnaga (Echinocactus Pringlei—Ferocactus Pringlei)

Mexican Lime Cactus; Limos de Visnaga (Echinocactus Pringlei—Ferocactus Pringlei)

(Named in honor of C. G. Pringle, botanist and collector of southwestern plants) The stems of this species grow singly or occasionally in clumps of a few. They are three to nine feet tall, something over a foot in diameter. Their ribs are quite prominent. The spines form in a marginal fringe of white bristlelike inch-long hairs that are bent and twisted, four to eight radials and four centrals, two inches long or less, cross-ridged and light red and yellow at their bases. The flowers encircle th

1 minute read

Read Chapter

Giant Visnaga (Echinocactus Visnaga)

Giant Visnaga (Echinocactus Visnaga)

(“Visnaga” is the Mexican name of the plant) These are giant barrel plants, greenish monsters growing to nine feet in height, a single trunk often four feet through, cylindrical, the top broadly rounded with the center somewhat sunken. Along this stem run thirty to forty inch-high glossy green ribs with wavy crests, and a dense mass of long tan woolly areolas. There are four straight, stout, sharp one- or two-inch thorns with smooth surfaces, creamy yellow or translucent with brownish tips. The

59 minute read

Read Chapter

Whipple’s Visnagita (Echinocactus Whipplei—Sclerocactus Whipplei)

Whipple’s Visnagita (Echinocactus Whipplei—Sclerocactus Whipplei)

(Named in honor of Lieutenant A. W. Whipple, in charge of the Whipple Expedition in 1853-1854, when this plant was discovered) This little cactus grows only three to six inches tall, and about the same in diameter, singly or occasionally in clumps. It is generally to be seen growing in the protection of shrubs at about five thousand feet. The stem is lined with thirteen to fifteen prominent spiraled ribs, and seven to eleven white radial spines. There are also four black and white central thorns

1 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSION

CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSION

Finis cannot be written to any story which deals with the desert; for the desert call is a charm, it will etch away the heart of you until it brings you back; back to the long trek across burning arid wastes where you wondered first how any living thing could exist and where you found life and beauty and music, back to the giant amphitheater of the desert where the moonbeams flit about at night among the weird Fantastic Clan and the sun boils everything up by day, defying you then to tarry long.

2 minute read

Read Chapter