Part 7

44. Yellow mentzelia

Many species of mentzelia, all herbs, occur in the West. Barbed hairs cover leaves and stems, causing the plant to cling to what it touches, hence a common name “stick-leaf.” Flowers grow at ends of branches, and some species open fully only in sunlight. A close relative, Mentzelia involucrata, “sand blazing-star,” is an annual, 4 to 16 inches high, blooming February through April, found in sandy washes below 3,000 feet in southwestern Arizona, southeastern California, and northern Sonora. Pumila grows in dry stream beds and on roadsides from 100 to 8,000 feet elevation, flowering February to October. It ranges from Wyoming and Utah to southeastern California and Northern Mexico.

Mentzelia pumila Loasa Family

45. Rock-nettle

Also called “stingbush,” this low, rounded bush is usually found growing from crevices in cliffs. When covered with large blossoms from April to September the plant has a striking appearance. The pale green leaves are covered with stinging hairs, strong enough to impale such small creatures as bats emerging from cave entrances where they grow. Rock-nettle is common in desert ranges of southeastern California, especially in the Death Valley area, to western Arizona and southern Nevada.

Eucnide urens Loasa Family

46. Night-blooming cereus

Easily overlooked, when not in blossom, as a group of slender, fluted, gray-green stems hidden beneath a shrub, this cactus is truly a glorious thing when in flower. Beauty and fragrance of its blossoms have earned it the name, in Mexico, of reina-de-la-noche, meaning “queen-of-the-night.”

Buds unfold soon after sunset in late June or early July, perfuming the desert air and attracting night-flying insects. They wilt soon after sunrise the following morning. The large, tuberous root, which serves as a water-storage organ, usually weighs from 5 to 15 pounds, but specimens have been found weighing more than 80 pounds. Indians at one time dug the tubers for food. The bulbous fruits become red when mature, and are almost as spectacular as the flowers. This species is found from west Texas to western Arizona and northern Mexico.

Peniocereus greggii Cactus Family

47. Saguaro

Largest of the cactuses in the United States, the saguaro (suh-WAR-oh) is limited in its principal range to southern Arizona and northern Mexico. Although rarely exceeding 30 feet in height, specimens 50 feet tall and weighing up to 10 tons, are on record. Blossoms form as huge bud clusters at the branch tips, opening a few at a time each night, usually in May, and remain open until mid-afternoon of the following day. Fruits of the saguaro are eaten by birds and other animals, and at one time were important in the diet of desert Indians. The state flower of Arizona and the subject of a US. postage stamp issued in February 1962 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Arizona’s statehood, the saguaro is also commemorated and protected in the National Monument of that name near Tucson.

Carnegiea gigantea Cactus Family

48. Organpipe cactus

Limited in its range to northwestern Mexico and the vicinity of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southwestern Arizona, this columnar cactus grows in clumps of spine-covered stems, some of which may be 10 to 15 feet in height, rarely branching, and with no central trunk. Blossoms open at or near the stem ends during May nights, and close the following day. The spine-covered fruits, about the size and shape of a hen’s egg, have long been harvested by the Papago Indians, who boil the sweet juice to the consistency of syrup and store the pulp and seeds for winter food. The fruits are locally called pitahaya dulce, or sweet cactus fruit.

Lemaireocereus thurberi Cactus Family

49. Claretcup echinocereus

Not only are there many species of Echinocereus, popularly called the “hedgehog cactuses,” but there are also several varieties of Echinocereus triglochidiatus. One variety sometimes develops into cushion-like mounds composed of several hundred oblong stems huddled together with a seemingly precarious foothold in crevices among the rocks or on rocky slopes of the Mojave desert. Another grows in loose clusters of cylindrical stems in the higher desert grasslands up to the oak belt in the mountains of southern New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico. When blossoming in May and June these clustering “hedgehogs” create a spectacular display.

Echinocereus triglochidiatus Cactus Family

50. Strawberry echinocereus

One of the more common species of “hedgehog,” sometimes called “Engelmann echinocereus,” the strawberry echinocereus grows as 2 to 12 or more robust, cylindrical stems up to a foot in height, among the creosote bushes and bur-sages of the Sonoran and Mojave-Colorado Deserts, flowering from February to May. Flowers close at night and reopen the following morning. Blossoms vary considerably in color from purple to lavender. Spines, too, are variable, from gray and yellow to dark brown. In southeastern California, where it is common, this species is called “calico cactus” because of its many-colored spines. Fruits of some varieties (of which there are many) are edible, forming an important item in the diet of birds and rodents.

Echinocereus engelmanii Cactus Family

51. Rainbow echinocereus

Far from common but among the more beautiful of the “hedgehogs” is the rainbow echinocereus, also called “rainbow cactus,” so named because of the horizontal bands of alternating red and white spines encircling the single, sturdy stem. It grows in rocky situations in the mountains of southern Arizona and northern Mexico, blossoming from June to August. The large flowers, of which there may be from one to four crowding around the crown of the plant, are often larger than the plant itself. Spines are small and lie densely flat over the somewhat fluted stem, which is from 3 to 14 inches high.

Echinocereus pectinatus Cactus Family

52. Yellow pitaya echinocereus

Sometimes called “Texas golden rainbow,” the yellow pitaya of the Chihuahuan Desert is similar in appearance, except for the color of its blossoms, to the rainbow echinocereus. Quite common in portions of Big Bend National Park, the Stubby, upright stems usually grow singly but sometimes occur in small clusters. The term pitaya or pitahaya is commonly applied along the Mexican border to cactuses bearing edible fruits. In Texas the term refers to the low-growing floral hedgehogs; in Arizona to the columnar cactuses. Pricklypear cactuses having soft, juicy, edible fruit are known as tunas.

Echinocereus dasyacanthus Cactus Family