Cactus Trip through the US South West

Wish I could have taken this one home, what a cracker double headed plant! And another one over the back as well for good measure. Literally anywhere there was a limestone ridge or hill, you'd find Ario's. As I said earlier, they're certainly not rare in this part of the world... And keep in mind we never had to cross a fence to see all these either...

Have we had enough Arios yet ???

What's that ? One more please Mister ??

But it's not all Arios. As you saw, there were Epithelanthas, Mammillaria lasiacantha, Echinocactus horizonthalonius and here was a nice plant of Sclerocactus (Glandulicactu) uncinatus

I am loving these pics Ariocarpus living rocks you can see why. Surprised to see so many plants and looking so healthy. Keep up the good work navajoa.

How's this for a nice pair ??

Three headed Epithelantha micromeris and a neat Ario...

Or perhaps you prefer a four headed Epithelantha ?

A couple of Epithalanthas and a couple of the Mamms..

Whats that ? Another genus trying to get in on the Ario shots ? Yep, Escobaria were here too..

A veritable feast of Epithelanthas...and can you spot the "two odd men out " ??

Hey, who's this guy outside our cabin ??? (Here's a hint- MEEP! MEEP!)

So after a few fabulous days, the sun was setting on our time in Big Bend and for that matter our time in Texas altogether...

The next day would see us start heading back towards Las Vegas via Arizona as we slowly began our long journey home... But we weren't quite done Cactus wise yet, some nice stuff was still to come !!!

i spotted the two odd men out down the bottom but dont know what they are and a nice pic of road runner but he looks a little different to what i remember.

wait a minute are they Mammillaria lasiacantha ?

Spot on Darren...

On one of our next stops finally gave us a new Genus. This time Thelocactus. Most likely a form of bicolor and we only found a couple of plants...would have been nice to see flowers on these, they are impressive !

and another with the trademark long flat spines of bicolor...

and the closest we got to seeing a E. horizonthalonius if flower...bugger!

Also here some Epithelantha micromeris...well buried and tough to spot...

So onwards into Arizona...some nice size Fero's at this spot...

Even if some are just being used by the Mamms for shade....

One of the Mammillarias, probably M. grahamii..??

And Echinomastus were here too, probably E. erectocentrus

Of course the Opuntias and Chollas were still here too...not the neatest of plants...

But the flowers make up for it...

Also here was Mammillaria heyderi again...