Cacti Gone Wild Spring Break 09!, part one: Echinomastus
Cacti Gone Wild Spring Break 09!, part one: Echinomastus
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:
Found this E. intertextus near Marfa, TX:
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.
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.
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:
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.
A few more installments from the trip coming up, including a lot of other flower pics.
peterb
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:
Found this E. intertextus near Marfa, TX:
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.
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.
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:
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.
A few more installments from the trip coming up, including a lot of other flower pics.
peterb
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Re: Cacti Gone Wild Spring Break 09!, part one: Echinomastus
Great pics, peterb!
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?peterb wrote:
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Great to see you back with a new batch of pictures. I always enjoy your habitat shots.
From the High Desert Steppe
of the Great Basin and foot hills
of the Sierra Nevada Range
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sierrarainshadow/
sierrarainshadow
of the Great Basin and foot hills
of the Sierra Nevada Range
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sierrarainshadow/
sierrarainshadow