Cacti Gone Wild Spring Break 09!, part one: Echinomastus

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peterb
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Cacti Gone Wild Spring Break 09!, part one: Echinomastus

Post by peterb »

I took a much needed trip into the American Outback (along with everyone and their uncle, more on that later) from last Sunday to Thursday, with main cactus stops in Anthony Gap, NM, near Van Horn Texas, along the way from Marfa through Presidio, Lajitas and Terlingua/Study Butte to Big Bend National Park and then back home through far southern NM and AZ. The trip involved so much different habitat and so many photos of plants it was a bit overwhelming for a 5 day jaunt. But I only had a week off so decided to cram in as much as possible.

One goal was to get photos of Echinomastus, especially warnockii and mariposensis, for an article I'm probably writing for Cactus & Co. So this post is all the Echinomastus highlights from the trip.

I made a quick stop along I-10 to visit some E. erectocentrus:
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Found this E. intertextus near Marfa, TX:
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South of Presidio, TX, stumbled on some Echinomastus that seem to be hybrids between dasyacanthus and warnockii. Gerald Raun was the first to write about these in a CSSA Journal article a while back. They look like dasyacanthus but the flowers have green or yellowish stigmas, not pink or red/maroon. There are other characters that are different as well. I'm not sure if Raun or others know about this lot, as the others seem to be in the Chisos Mtns.
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One of my favorite cactus habitats is the flat limestone desert pavement in Brewster County. Within a few square yards it's possible to find Mammillaria lasiacantha, Mammillaria pottsii, Glandulicactus wrightii, Ariocarpus fissuratus, Echinocereus dasyacanthus, Coryphantha ramillosa, Coryphantha echinus, Coryphantha macromeris runyonii, Escobaria albicolumnaria, Escobaria tuberculosa, Epithelantha micromeris, Epithelantha bokei and Echinomastus mariposensis. I'll post some of the others in a separate post, but here's some mariposensis pics. They had finished flowering about 2-3 weeks previously.

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E. warnockii was still flowering, however. E. warnockii grows in a wider range of substrates than mariposensis. Interestingly, the two species don't ever seem to occur together. These photos from Big Bend NP:

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On the way home, I visited a population of Echinomastus intertextus near Sonoita, AZ. It was near sunrise and to my surprise they were flowering (they flowered about 3 weeks later last year), so I decided to kill some time and wait for the buds to open later in the day.

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A few more installments from the trip coming up, including a lot of other flower pics.

peterb
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Christer Johansson
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Post by Christer Johansson »

Ooooh, that's nice pictures :shock: I want to be there now :oops:
/Christer
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Post by daiv »

Peter, I noticed you were away and I thought to myself that you were doing something like this. I'm so glad it was true!
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Post by Saguaro123 »

Great Habitat shots Peter. :)
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Post by CoronaCactus »

Totally awesome!
Wow, Brewster is where it's at!
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Re: Cacti Gone Wild Spring Break 09!, part one: Echinomastus

Post by CelticRose »

Great pics, peterb! 8)
peterb wrote:Image
Interesting how this one is sitting by itself in a near-perfect plant-free circle. Are its roots preventing other plants from growing around it?
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peterb
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Post by peterb »

I'd say it's probably one of the few that could establish there. The habitat is very hard sandstone, like solid sedimentary mud.

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Tony
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Post by Tony »

I had a feeling you were off taking pictures for us. :thumbright:
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Arzberger
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Post by Arzberger »

Great habitat shots!
Thanks for sharing!
peterb
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Post by peterb »

Thanks Alex. The next step is to get down into Mexico to check out durangensis, unguispinus, laui and hispidus in habitat, if possible. Maybe this (early) summer or perhaps next spring when they might be flowering.

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Post by Ocotillo »

Awesome as always Peter!
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Post by ihc6480 »

Love it when you go out hiking around :D Great habitat shots as usual :wink:
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peterb
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Post by peterb »

thanks...if I could figure a way to have the entire spring off and just be "out there" I'd do it. of course, some think I'm already "out there." :-)

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John P Weiser
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Post by John P Weiser »

Great to see you back with a new batch of pictures. I always enjoy your habitat shots. 8)
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peterb
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Post by peterb »

Thanks John. Living close to such a variety of great habitat is an amazing opportunity. It's nice that I've been able to take advantage of it the past few years especially.

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