Hunt should be beaten with a sclerocactus for naming that plant with such a horrible name. Ferguson's treatment of Mammillaria is not accepted by most taxonomists so for the time being I'd stick with Hunt's treatment.
Dean

Thanks Peter, I think my Madrono subscription is still current. Rebman has been busy and I haven't seen these yet.
Dean

I do believe that it is one plant, the base is hairy and some of the growths are also hairy while most of the plant is normal. I think that Phil has the correct explanation. It doesn't appear to be a hybrid but rather a species with a hairy seedling stage and some branches are reverting to an immatu...

Yes, right!! I was busy working on Opuntia and it didn't occur to me that you might not have received the update on "var. purpureus". Perhaps you did from Marc Baker anyway. At any rate, the new name is not yet published so no way to include it. Like you said, a second edition addition. Dean

Peter, this will be a very welcome and well done book. I can't wait to get mine. Now that it is much too late, I could answer that question you had earlier regarding E. engelmannii var. purpureus or at least the diploid population of Echinocereus in northeastern Arizona and southwestern Utah. Blake ...

Thanks Peter, Great Trip!!!
Dean

My cacti (mainly Opuntia species) are all outside planted on mounds but they are parasitized by several species of moths and a cactus beetle. I have some loss of pads each year to the moths. The cactus beetles I keep under control (more or less) by carefully inspecting the plants but the moths canno...

It is certainly a cactus boring moth. The remains of the pupal cast remains but the moth has gone on to attack yet another cactus. I'm not sure of the genus as there are several related ones to consider. Bad news for a collection but I've only seen them in wild cacti before.
Dean

Your Opuntia fragilis (really not that species but possibly O. fragilis hybrids) should root very readily if you give them a pot of their own. Lay the pads flat on the substrate or standing up with some of the pad base buried an inch or two. Don't water for two to three weeks and then sparingly. If ...

A little more about the supposed new variety of Escobaria from Utah discussed above. It turns out that there were no cacti involved at all in the photos. The cactus-like structures are merely seed pods of the plant we identified as producing the flowers used in this funny hoax. I was almost certain ...

Neither O. spinosibaca or O. macrocentra occurs in Nevada. Your choices, if it is a native species in that state, are O. phaeacantha and O. engelemannii. There are hybrids west of Search LIght and south of Las Vegas, named O. X curvispina that are also large with fleshy fruit. It generally has a sol...

The second photo doesn't look like the pads in the first photo. The pads in the first photo may not all be from the same plant but could be even though one is nearly spineless and has many large glochids. As Saxicola suggested, it would help to know if the plants are Nevada natives or not. There are...

It is an Echinocereus but could be either triglochidiatus or coccineus.
Dean

Joe, good to see that the site is up and running again. From my perspective, it would be more useful if you updated the species names and captions to reflect 21st century taxonomy.
Dean

DaveW, Thanks for looking up the "new Escobaria in southern Utah". Strange photos that don't match. The first photo is an entirely different plant. The remaining photos are of plants in cultivation and do not appear to be Escobaria at all. The flowers are not from a cactus which is plain f...