# arizona cacti



## cnycharles (Jan 11, 2012)

Visiting family and flew into Phoenix. Headed towards Hoover Dam/Lake Mead, and stopped a few places along the way. We stopped behind a post office that had a vacant lot with a cacti garden of sorts. We saw the saguaro first (lots of pics, and many more to come later)

if you know the name of any cacti, feel free to fill in the blanks!












close up of above





mesquite? smelled like a barbecue 





a few types of saguaro





stepfather and saguaro





joshua tree and saguaro





yours truly under a joshua tree





ants-eye view climbing a saguaro





flowers?





fuzzier spines





I believe I was told that this is mistletoe (hanging yellow thing, parasitic)


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## Paph_LdyMacBeth (Jan 11, 2012)

Cool. Wish I was there! (only I am not very cautious and would probably end up with cactus face)


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## SlipperFan (Jan 11, 2012)

Next to orchids (and hostas), I love the shapes and textures of cactii & succulents!


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## cnycharles (Jan 11, 2012)

*joshua tree scenic area +*



Paph_LdyMacBeth said:


> (only I am not very cautious and would probably end up with cactus face)



 if you look closely at the pic where I'm standing in front of a joshua tree, you'll see that i'm leaning forwards so that I don't get spines in the back of my head (thought I don't think joshua trees have real spines)

moving along on our way, we drove through an area with lots of joshua trees, and then other interesting things


















































critter den of some kind (I think the whole thing is about ten inches across)


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## Clark (Jan 11, 2012)

Glad to see you are travelling again Charles. Great shots, but if you get to shoot a Geococcyx californianus, Wild E. Coyote will sneeze himself silly:rollhappy:

On a more serious note, on the Nevada side of Hoover Dam, first parking area(plainly marked on Google map, RT. 93), used to be a nice herd of rams shootable from parking lot. Not all are collared, and offer great shots.


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## JeanLux (Jan 12, 2012)

Impressive plants, thanks for showing Charles!!!!! Jean


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## biothanasis (Jan 12, 2012)

Great scenery and place, very interesting plants too!!!


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## Marc (Jan 12, 2012)

Nice pictures never been in such an enviroment so looking at them was a treat!


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## NYEric (Jan 12, 2012)

Looks like a ton of potential pain!


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## Clark (Jan 12, 2012)

After the coffee kicked in, thinkin' critter hole is dual purpose.
Looks like it would be difficult to exit...


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## Shiva (Jan 12, 2012)

I like cacti as well. Nice to see them in their habitat.


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## TyroneGenade (Jan 12, 2012)

Lovely photos! Driving from LA to the Grand Canyon and then down to Phoenix (during my November trip to the USA) was awesome. My only regret was that there were so few spots to stop and take photos of the fields of Joshua trees... And then I drove down to Phoenix too late in the day to get good photos of the cactia. Your dessert scenery is spectacular!


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## Lycaste53 (Jan 12, 2012)

Very nice. I like the cacti too. 
For some years, I cultivated cacti in a garden at Lanzarote, Canary Islands. That was much easyer than to cultivate hardy orchids in a garden in Munich.
Best regards, Gina


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## nikv (Jan 12, 2012)

Very nice photos! A slight correction, however. Only the species Carnegia gigantea is commonly called a saguaro. Some of the others in your photos are commonly called Organ Pipe Cactus. All are pretty, though!


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## likespaphs (Jan 12, 2012)

groovy photos!
is the mistletoe a mistletoe cactus/Rhipsalis?
https://www.google.com/search?q=mistletoe+cactus&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=jRsPT_WrFuHw0gHu_fzNAw&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1440&bih=809


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## W. Beetus (Jan 12, 2012)

Those cacti are great! I've never seen any large ones in person.


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## cnycharles (Jan 12, 2012)

thanks! looking at wikipedia, the mistletoe is a phoradendron species. there are some other interesting cacti around, it's just hard to stop everywhere and take pictures of things, especially when some of them are in people's yards 

edit* the yellow flower in the second batch of pictures (with the joshua trees) is called Lotus rigidus - Shrubby Deervetch


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