, and a few branches of a big Ocotillo cactus slanting across from left to right.
This is a Red Fishhook barrel cactus, a hybrid of some sort with traditional barrrel cacti. The two on the right are bowling ball size, the big one is pretty good sized, a couple of feet across at least, judging from the brick pavers behind them. Probably much sharper than they look, too!!
This is a Palo Verde tree, which means Green Stick in Spanish. In the heat of the summer they can drop their leaves to stop moisture loss, and just operate on the green bark that photosynthesizes. Yellow flowers, very pretty.
There are a lot of these in Tucson, kind of rare up at the elevation of the camp.
No idea what the name of this guy is, but really interesting little cactus, so here it is for the Jackals to tell us all about. As I mentioned, they hybridize a lot, and if you aren’t in a garden planned to be educational, but intended to be ornamental, no telling what you might see.
The chollo cactus looks like the stuff of nightmares!
@eclare: There’s a grove of chollo at Joshua Tree, it’s supposed to be one of the best places to shoot the sunrise in the park. Someday I’ll get there for sunrise, maybe someday.
It’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and the cacti is a “cholla” not “chollo”.
Your posts have been getting me to talk with my friends who lived out there for many years. The other day I said a couple of them lived in a cave in “Pink Granite Canyon” it was actually “Molino Canyon” but they didn’t know the name back then. I remember how spectacular the Catlina’s looked when the fog would roll in over them at sunrise.
This is out near Organ Pipe in the early 70’s.
The guy in the tan jacket is the subject of “The Last Great Road Bum” by Héctor Tobar.
Very nice pictures JR. I’m not likely to see similar IRL so I can enjoy your cacti pictures vicariously and avoid all the bloodletting that a klutz like me would inevitably spill.
@raven: Going on the list.
Very cool; I did not realize that cacti could be cross-bred easily. And there are so many different ones! They’re very pretty when densely arranged like this.
@raven: Gonna have to read that one.
@OzarkHillbilly: I only knew him briefly but he was great friends with a couple of Urbana townies I’m close to. He was sure that the revolution was coming here in the form of South and Central American forces and he was going to be one of them.
Gorgeous! Yes, bats (Lesser long-nosed Bat and Mexican Long-tongued Bat) are the pollinators for saguaros and other cactus species. In fact, they are the pollinators for the agave species that is used to make tequila. So let’s raise a toast to the bats of the world!
Once we were camping in the Chiricahuas and hung up a hummingbird feeder, because there are regularly several spectacular species of hummingbirds in that part of Arizona. Overnight the feeder was emptied, which was odd; hummingbirds are not nocturnal creatures. The next evening I watched the feeder as the sun went down, and many many bats came in to drink the sugar water. They were all Mexican Long-tongued Bats; I got some flash pictures and was able to see they are very aptly named!
I miss that part of Arizona greatly, yes, even the jumping chollas. Thanks for the pics, they help a lot!
The last one looks to my slightly-trained* eye, like an Echinocerus in habit, but without a flower in the picture I won’t even start to make a guess as to its identity as to species. subspecies, variety or hybrid status!
*I grow several hardy species in my sand-bed garden here in SE Pennsylvania.
@OzarkHillbilly: Yes, that is amazing! We also once witnessed the evening flight of bats (also Mexican Free-tailed Bats) from under the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin TX. That was both a visual and an olfactory experience!
@Albatrossity: That was both a visual and an olfactory experience!
Ha! Reminiscent of a bat count I did on an Indiana bat maternity colony. I’d really like to see that some day.
There is something magical about a sunrise in the Arizona desert. Of course, sunsets can be pretty awesome too.
between your personal adventurous life and your eclectic friends, the evening stories must be fascinating. And thanks for speling the cactus correctly. Really Nice car, too. Would really be/mid ’50s Studebaker, two tone green. His best Stude was a red ’64 convertible, 289… would eat a GTO for lunch. Had black seats, bad choice for a ragtop!
Please post the bats at the hummingbird feeder some day, and any other Chiricahuas pictures too. They’re our view-shed mountains across the valley from the Dragoons we live in out there. There was a terrible fire in those moountains soe years ago, it drove all the wildlife down into the valley. I had a Very scary close encounter with a V large mountain lion one evening at my AZ cousin’s after dinner when I walked out to our RV bunkhouse after dark.
I miss being at 5500 feet, the elevation helps my joints. I grew up at 2500 feet in WV 90 miles east of where we are now, in the lowlands at 750 feet. Milder weather in winter, hot and damp by comparison in summers.
Glad folks enjoyed these… they are what I have mostly, but for mostly tiny little cactii around the knob where the camp is.
If I find those photos I’ll post them too, some with blooms in early spring.
Picture #3 is a nice family shot! Crop it and put some holiday bejewels on it and you have a Christmas card.
@Albatrossity: A little known fact about the Chiricahuas is that Vladimir Nabokov wrote parts of Lolita while studying butterflies near Portal AZ.
One of my favorite philosophy conferences meets at the Westward Look every January. Except this year when it has gone virtual. So it was a pleasure to be reminded of why I like the place so much.
And yes, there are hummingbirds there.
I’m as much amazed by the story of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show as by the pictures. Billions in a few weeks? Wow.
The Red Fishhook barrel cactus looks like it came from a different world. Or blink again and it looks like a big tangled ball of yarn that someone should have been more careful with. And photosynthesizing bark is new to me too.
I love that there are all these worlds within worlds within the bigger world we all share. Thanks to picture-takes and front-pagers for giving us these travelogues. You learn so much at BJ!
Since I’m one of the resident locals… yeah the Tucson Gem and Mineral show is a huge moneymaker for the City, hotel rooms are booked months in advance, rock hounds from EVERYWHERE show up to get fleeced to pursue their passion, pretty interesting configurations that are the byproduct of mother nature and father science getting it on. The variety of the gems and other history that are present is simply staggering and is well worth a visit to simply see the beauty of what is presented.
For the cacti feature, the cholla is indeed just as nasty as intimated, it’s spiny needles so thin as to be damn near invisible, hence the jumping moniker because what you see as the end of the cactus may actually be another quarter to a half inch longer and they hurt when embedded.
Fabulous photos. My oldest son went to school there (the kids joking referred to it as UC Tucson because of all of the other Californians), and the Westward Look was one of my favorite places to stay. The Lodge on the Desert was another favorite. Tucson was always an expensive road trip, because I usually had to write a tuition check before I left.
The trick to dealing with cholla is to carry a coarse-toothed comb. If one of the parts latches onto you, lift it off with the comb, don’t touch it with your fingers.
There’s a nice open-air garden and zoo in Palm Desert, CA called The Living Desert. They also have a large undeveloped area for hiking.
Hey, I’ve been there! I was there for a work gathering years ago. I knew I’d been somewhere outside of Tucson, but I didn’t remember the name. I loved all of the cactus gardens. The “green stick” was a particular favorite – none of them had any leaves when I was there.Season 3 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is barely over and we've already been treated to the exciting news that #Netflix has renewed the show for another season. (If they could do the same for Sense8, all would be