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Some photos from Wheeler County, Oregon, last week...
O. Fragilis


Pediocactus

Wonderful! Are these the forum's first Oregon habitat shots Daiv? The spines on that Opuntia fragilis are wonderful, is it maybe a hybrid with O. polyacantha? And would the Pedio be called nigrispinus by some? Or is it robustior?

peterb

Those fragilis spines are particularly fierce looking. Very nice!

I like that first shot.

All Pediocactus in Oregon should be P. nigrispinus if you use that name. P. simpsonii ssp robustior occurs right on the border between Nevada and Oregon but so far as I know only on the Nevada side. Not Wheeler co in any case.

Neat. I dont really think of Oregon as having too many cacti, but then again the Eastern part is mostly desert, so it makes sense. I have been thru the desert in Eastern Washington and it was interesting. I slept part of the way tho and so I only saw a few dazed minutes but it seemed cool anyways. I slept thru Idaho as well. Oh well. It wasnt my fault the train ran thru there at around 3am...and BTW I was tired!

There are P. Simpsonii on Steens Mountain and around the Alvord Desert, supposedly. There are a couple other opuntias in Oregon as well, one being Columbiana.
I have many more cactus photos from the John Day river area if anyone's interested.

oh yes, definitely interested. bring 'em on!

peterb

dvdmsy
I have driven back and forth on highway 95 many times over the years. The Steens have always drawn my attention. Rising so sharply above the surrounding high desert steppes and playas. Then as I approach Burns Junction I turn north east toward Jordan Valley and Boise. You have given me a good reason to go northwest instead. Don't know if the wife will understand about not going to seeing the grand kids.
By the way that stretch of road in eastern Oregon is one of the loneliest but I know sections of Nevada that can compete.
Show us what you got! I'd love to see them.

Here it comes then. O. Fragilis in bloom:


More Pediocactus...

The Blue Basin, part of the John Day National Monument where these
cactus groves thrive:



The Painted Hills with Sutton Mountain behind them. O. Fragilis are everywhere low, Pediocactus everywhere high.

hmm that last shot looks a lot like Arizona!
those are some cool pics! Thanks for sharing them.

The O. fragalis looks neat too.
The clumps of Pediocactus are neat too!

Beautiful!

Those are some outstanding photos!

I'm late to the party here, but no less impressed by these. Thanks so much for posting!

Peter, these are definitely the first native Oregon pictures we've had on the forum. Most exciting!

I still would like to put together a cactus by state list, but haven't thought of the best way to do it yet.

Wonderful! It's great to see flowering fragilis, relatively unusual in cultivation. The Pediocactus clumps are most impressive. Would love to visit that wild country sometime. Thanks for posting these photos.

peterb