Cactus Trip through the US South West

I thought you guys might like to see a few of the photo's from a Cactus chasing trip I did last year with some other equally mad Cactus guys ! We traveled for 3 weeks through California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas looking for the some of the more rarely grown plants. Needless to say the trip was great and we saw a lot of fantastic plants and countryside, and even squeezed in a few nurseries a long the way.
(They might appear in another thread someday !)

It'll probably take me a number of sessions to post it all, so sit back and enjoy the ride, but please feel free to ask any questions, make comments or offer corrections. That's what forums are all about!

First stop, the Mojave National Preserve in California. Lots of Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) !

But amongst the Yucca's were the ever present Chollas.

And one that caught my eye as a little more interesting than the others, the Diamond Cholla - Cylindropuntia ramosissima

And the first Fero of the trip. Either Ferocactus acanthodes or cylindraceus depending on what name you want to go with!

And I was quite taken by this Opuntia as well, it was very common, but the pads develops this lovely reddish/purple tinge.

Nice Fero, this is going to be an awesome thread!

And the flowers weren't bad either ! This is Opuntia basilaris. Anyone growing it here in Australia ?

Now Yucca's and Opuntias are all well and good, but we wanted "real" Cacti* and we managed to find one large Echinocereus at this stop which was in flower..Probably E. engelmannii or boyce-thomsonii if you prefer.

*(That being said, I came back with a new found appreciation of the genus Opuntia, some of the flowers I saw (and you'll see too) were truly magnificent!)

Close up of the flowers...very nice !

Love that fero was it the only one in this particular area or were there many and were they all different ages. I would love to go overseas one day on a cactus expedition i think it would be great to see plants in the wild.

Onwards towards the Arizona border and we stopped near a town of Cima. Here we found some spectacular Echinocereus clumps. All forms of triglochidiatus.

Stunning flowers

And no shortage of them either !

Thanks Crypto !

Cactuscook, there were a few of the Fero's at this spot, but it wasn't ideal for them as they prefer more hilly, rough terrain. When we drove along the highway and passed through the hills you saw a lot more of them than here on the plains...

I just love habitat photos thanks for sharing.

Only prob with threads like this is that they give me seriously itchy feet... Beautiful photos too btw... habitat photos are great.. but even better when they are good quality too...

So then on to the Kingston Peak area with some nice scenery and skies...

And a good size Fero for CactusCook. This one was just over 3 feet tall..

A different Opuntia here, Opuntia polyacantha

And a Yucca in flower...

Also started to see plants of the Coryphantha or Escobaria families. Tough to identify without flowers, but probably something like E. vivipara. Good size plants too.

That Opuntia polyacantha is amazing... something like that would be awesome to see in the wild.

But the highlight at this stop for me was seeing some large Echinocactus polycephalus clumps. They were pretty common too, and we'd see a lot more of them as the trip progressed. Shame they are so rarely seen in cultivation here, probably because they can be tough to germinate and get through the first year. (at least that's been my experience)

A youngster just starting to offset...

Another big clump with the remains of flowers and seed pods. Notice too the Echinocereus taking shelter under the front...

And talking of shelter, we've probably heard it all before but seeing is believing - so many plants were growing at the base of a bush or something. Some kind of nursing plant to give the seedling a little shelter and a chance to grow in the extreme conditions. Here's a young Fero under it's bush..