arizona cacti

[cnycharles]

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)

 

[Paph_LdyMacBeth]

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

 

[SlipperFan]

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

 

[cnycharles]

joshua tree scenic area +

(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)

 

[Clark]

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.

 

[JeanLux]

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

 

[biothanasis]

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

 

[Marc]

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

 

[NYEric]

Looks like a ton of potential pain!

 

[Clark]

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

 

[Shiva]

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

 

[TyroneGenade]

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!

 

[Lycaste53]

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

 

[nikv]

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!

 

[likespaphs]

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

 

[W. Beetus]

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

 

[cnycharles]

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