Santa Fe NM cacti in habitat part 1

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:28 am

Hill and sky about 10 minutes south of Santa Fe

O. polyacantha

O. phaeacantha, a strange cow's tongue form:

O. polyacantha and phaeacantha

O. polyacantha v. trichophora about ten feet away from last shot

more in part 2

Peterb

ihc6480 · Post by **ihc6480** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:34 am

Cool, pictures of my favorite cacti

Great pictures Peterb.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:18 am

Very nice. Do any of them have fruit?

Mark

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:00 am

Hi Mark- Some of the Opuntias had fruit. The polyacantha have very dry, spiny fruit. The phaeacantha and other types usually have their fruit eaten by now, as is the case with Echinocerei also.

There wasn't a lot of flowering this year, as we had the driest winter on record and it was severe drought until the record breaking rains came in August, too late for a lot of flowers. Well, except for a lot of the Escobaria viviparas and Mammillaria wrightii. They tend to flower every year no matter how much water there is.

Peterb

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:49 am

Oh ok thanks.

Mark

Spiniflores · Post by **Spiniflores** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 7:10 am

why the soils looks so red?

clays??

great "tunas" (as chilean people call "opuntias")

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 4:07 pm

Hi Juan- not sure why the soil is red, perhaps iron oxides or other mineral content. There are a lot of different soil colors in the US southwest, especially around northern Arizona and Utah. Sometimes here in New Mexico you find cacti growing in pure red sand.

thanks again for all the beautiful pictures from Chile.

Peterb