Cactus Flowers and other Desert Flowers

Over the years, we have driven out into the desert on "good" years to photograph flowers.  I have always been amazed at the beauty and diversity of cactus flowers.  Maybe they have to cry out louder for pollinating insects than other flowers in wetter places.

Click on any image below to see a larger image.

Picacho Peak Poppies   On a good year, the park at Picacho Peak between Phoenix and Tucson is filled with flowers.	More Picacho Peak Poppies.	Picacho Peak White Poppies . Had not encountered white poppies before.  Would seem to be a good match for a desert climate though...	Mexican Golden Barrel Cactus	Century Plants Sending up Flower Spikes
Century Plant Flowers	Hedge-Hog Cactus Blooms	Poppies and lupin	Lupin	Prickly Pear
Saguaros, Chain-fruit Cholla, Hedge Hogs (blooming). Superstition mountains in background	Globe Mallow	Globe Mallow?	Pincushion	Poppies in our back yard
Night blooming Cereus These are in our yard.  They bloom at night, always after sundown, then shrivel up before noon.	Night blooming Cereus Note bloom on left that has already shriveled.	Staghorn Cholla	Hedge hog	Staghorn Cholla
Prickly Pear	Penstemon according to an Email I received from David Imus.  Thanks David!	Beavertail	Lupin and pincushion	Staghorn Cholla
Staghorn Cholla	Beavertail	Beavertail	Bottle brush tree	Echinocereus Rubispinus (Fortunately this one was labeled.)
Prickly Pear	Hedge hog	Pincushion	Staghorn cholla Green flowers?  Whoever heard of green flowers?	Chain-fruit cholla Blooming!  I believe this is unusual. i.e.,  rare.  Only once on a "really good year" did we find a chain-fruit cholla blooming.  A "good year" has the right amount of rain at the right time in the winter...
Chain-fruit cholla blooms!	Chain-fruit cholla Bloom!	Pincushion	Small Cactuses
Chain Fruit Cholla - Often called "jumping cholla".  Here is why.  The thorns look pretty harmless.  Big and fat...	But the big fat part is actually a thin, fat sheath!  Sort of like the chaff or husk that covers a wheat grain.  If you carefully pull on the sheath,	the real thorn is exposed.  It is SHARP.  Sharper than most needles.  If you unwittingly push or lean against the big fat harmless-looking thorns, the real thorns puncture their sheaths then puncture you.  The thorns have barbs.  They have to be removed with pliers typically. The punctures then bleed typically.  It is called jumping cholla because after you get stabbed and pull away, the part that has you breaks off of the main plant along with more of the main plant than you might expect.  The separation causes momentum that drives more thorns from the newly separated parts of the plant the into you.  These parts seem to "jump" toward you.  You are then carrying a lot of really painful cactus around with you.  If you are an animal and cannot free yourself, the stuff will eventually come loose and drop to the ground where it very well might take root and establish a new plant.  That seems to be part of its mindless strategy...
(NEW) Late August - Fishhook Barrel Cactus	(NEW) Late August - Fishhook Barrel Cactus	(NEW) Late August - Fishhook Barrel Cactus	(NEW) Why its called a "Fishhook" Barrel Cactus.  Barrel because its sort of barrel shaped.  "Fishhook" because its thorns look like fishhooks.  They curve on the end.  Click on the image to see the high-resolution image and then look at the thorns.  The fishhook shape is particularly noticable on the right side of the cactus where they are highlighted against the gravel.