Cacti at 11,000 feet! White Mountains -California

Post by **daiv** » Thu May 17, 2007 6:26 am

Ok, I quick put together an albumn of pictures from the White Mountains of California where we found Opuntia growing over 11,000 feet (3300 meters) altitude! Talk about hardy! You'll also find some beautiful Echinocereus.

http://www.coniferguide.com/ron2007-cactus/index.html

I've also included some Bristle Cone Pine shots for you.

Daiv

PinkNailPolish · Post by **PinkNailPolish** » Thu May 17, 2007 7:12 am

Those are great pictures! It's always amazing the difference between a wild cactus and one in a pot, lol. I like that picture of the baby cactus with your finger pointing at it. Baby cacti are cute.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Thu May 17, 2007 12:22 pm

What a beautiful and amazing place that is

Thanks for showing these images Daiv!

Oh yah whats up with that 2nd to last pic #3657.
Is it an image of a cactus put there by the cactus gods?

Or just dust on the drivers side door upolstery?

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Thu May 17, 2007 1:19 pm

Hi Daiv- looks like a great trip into some peace and quiet. The Echinocereus engelmannii photos are beautiful. Opuntia basilaris, too. (looks like variety "ramosa.")

peterb

peter · Post by **peter** » Thu May 17, 2007 2:28 pm

Ha Daiv, I think you have seen the oldest living tree and organism, ~4800 years old!

Spiniflores · Post by **Spiniflores** » Thu May 17, 2007 3:03 pm

hello

thanks for that beautifull link!

great TREES!!! what is that tree? is amazing...

and about cacti, I dont know much about north american cacti; but I know that you can find different species according to the altitude.

her in Chile we have found rare cacti beyond 3000 mt, for example:

Trichocereus atacamensis (now Echinopsis atacamesis)
Soherencia formosa (now Echinopsis formosa)
Maihueniopsis glomerata
Maihueniopsis camachoi
Cumulopuntia boliviana var. ignescens

here you can have some gps if you want to google earth and "fly"...

greetings from Chile

Juan and Echinopsis atacamensis ("cardon")

GeneS · Post by **GeneS** » Thu May 17, 2007 3:17 pm

Great trip daiv ... glad we could all share!

Looks like you had your trip timing right on the money. So often I've gone somewhere to see only buds or dead flower remains or empty fruit.

GeneS
PS. I is impossible to take too many pictures of Echinocereus. Everyone is different and beautiful in it's own rugged way.

peter · Post by **peter** » Thu May 17, 2007 3:55 pm

Spiniflores wrote:great TREES!!! what is that tree? is amazing...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristlecone_pine

Post by **daiv** » Thu May 17, 2007 7:06 pm

Tony wrote: Oh yah whats up with that 2nd to last pic #3657.
Is it an image of a cactus put there by the cactus gods?
Or just dust on the drivers side door upolstery?

You know why I included that? The road was dusty with fine dust so everything had a thin coat of dust on it. Then because of the dry conditions we were generating tons of static every time we moved. That picture is the dust particles that got zapped into that pattern when I went for the window control. I only noticed it later or I would have made a bunch of them.

hob · Post by **hob** » Thu May 17, 2007 7:23 pm

.......did i see Echinocereus stramineus in there

.......i have one of those

Post by **daiv** » Thu May 17, 2007 7:35 pm

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Solitude is right - we were the only people around for miles!

Juan -I wondered if you had high altitude cacti down there or if these were the highest of all. I see you also have some that don't mind heights!

The trees are Bristlecone Pines, (Pinus longaeva). This is only half the trip. I also hiked in to the Foxtail Pines, a similar species that grows in isolated spots in California -very hard to find. If you all like, I can share pics of those too.

Gene, don't worry, I've probably got 50 more pictures that I didn't post here.

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Thu May 17, 2007 9:56 pm

Hi- Not E. stramineus as that is a Chihuahuan Desert species, but E. engelmannii (one of the varieties, maybe variegatus?) which grows in the area Dave was in.

Great Echino shots!

peterb

Buck Hemenway · Post by **Buck Hemenway** » Thu May 17, 2007 10:21 pm

Beautiful pictures Daiv, what a great trip.

Wait until you see Woody Minnich's latest show on the Bolivian cacti. For three weeks they were at a low altitude of 12,000 ft and up to 16,000 ft. Gymnos, Echinopsis, Parodias and others.