Cacti around Aruba

Steve-o · Post by **Steve-o** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 1:07 am

Thought Id share some succulents I found while in Aruba last week.

Steve-o · Post by **Steve-o** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 1:10 am

Steve-o · Post by **Steve-o** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 1:14 am

Harriet · Post by **Harriet** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 1:52 am

Cool!

fanaticactus · Post by **fanaticactus** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:11 am

Your shots show a totally unexpectedly different aspect of Aruba. I had no idea.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 12:22 pm

Great shots, thanks for shareing them!

Arzberger · Post by **Arzberger** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 3:56 pm

Great pictures and interesting landscapes!!

Regards
Alex

tumamoc · Post by **tumamoc** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:26 pm

Way cool. Thanks for posting all those great shots. I'm not familiar with Carribean cacti. What are the columnars? What are the smaller ones, for that matter?

Post by **daiv** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 11:33 pm

So awesome! Thanks for posting these. I really like the pic with the back of the Jeep as I can just envision myself being in that Jeep, driving along.

The dominant cactus is probably Pilosocereus lanuginosus, I would guess and M. macracanthos for the Melo - but not positive on either.

I notice a really cool Agave in one shot too.

paulzie32 · Post by **paulzie32** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 12:15 am

I love Aruba... In fact Curacao and Bonaire are also great for cactus! I've been to Aruba more though. Love renting a jeep and just driving around the island! the back side of the island I think is much nicer. Did you see the section with all the "Sculptures" along the beach? They're made with Driftwood, Animal Bones, Rope, etc. Really cool.
I Love all the Melocactus!

kaktus · Post by **kaktus** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 10:38 am

Great pictures! I would love to visit that island. I was changing flight in Bonaire once, but wasn't allowed to leave the airport. It bummed me out.
Aruba also have a very nice species of rattlesnake, endemic to the island, Crotalus unicolor.

Steve-o · Post by **Steve-o** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 8:06 pm

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

As much as I love cacti, Im not huge into knowing their scientific names, so while there I couldnt ID any specific species, so thanks for some of the ID's!

We did indeed rent Jeeps and drive them to Arikok National Park, where I snapped a majority of my cacti photos. I would have preferred more time in the park, but dusk was approaching so we basically drove through and only made a few quick stops here and there. The most variety of cacti in the park I found were along the crazy off-road trail leading to the Natural Pool. We parked and got out, and it was hard to walk w/o stepping on cacti, some areas had incredibly dense cacti patches.

Steve-o · Post by **Steve-o** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 8:09 pm

Here are some more snapshots from around the island.