Armatocereus cartwrightianus sihouette, Peru
Armatocereus cartwrightianus is a poorly known and little grown arborescent cactus from South America.
David Yetman (The Great Cacti, 2007, University of Arizona Press, 2007) reports
Residents of an indigenous community in coastal Ecuador professed to me a fondness for the fruits of Armatocereus cartwrightianus, but acknowledged that they do not collect them as they did before market foods were easily available
Typically, succulent plants have one season with rains that may be short, even just a few weeks. The plant must collect all the water it will need for the coming 6-11 months. They may even need enough water to support flowering before a new rainy season. Consider a rose bush, it thrives in warm but not hot weather and demands adequate soil moisture all the time. A rose could not survive in the Namib Desert nor in Baja California outside of the rainy season; in fact, high temperatures in the rainy season could easily damage a modern rose bush.
Succulent plants have a variety of means to retain water over dry times. One common mechanism is to store water in leaves and stems. To store water in leaves requires a special type of leaf, one that can hold water and slowly release it to the main plant. How do succulent plants hold water instead of losing it quickly as would happen to most plants experiencing 100F day after day in dry conditions.
Many succulent plants have a gel in their leaves; you’ve experience this gel if you’ve ever used aloe lotion. The gel in a real aloe plant is much more concentrated than in lotion. The gel in succulent plants holds water tightly slowing giving it up to the main plant that is in hibernation during hot dry times and which needs very little water. Additionally, succulent plants may have enlarged leaves (thick) and so can store more water in their leaves. Also, succulent plants may close their stomata during daylight hours thereby reducing the amount of water lost to transpiration.
At the base of Mt. Charleston (after editing)
There are a lot of ups and downs with fixing up photos for a blog. Photos needed to be cropped, resized, and often fixed up–a pink a little pinker and an edge a little better defined. Often a great photo can be made better for Web publication.
Some of the work can be done in editing software like Photoshop, but I don’t know how to effectively use Photoshop and have not been able to teach myself. I’ve become a fan of Microsoft Office Photo managing software. One reason that I like it is that it makes great decisions about 85% of the time–photos come out looking better–they are crisper, cleaner, and often brighter. The photo above is an enhanced version of the photo below–I like the top photo better.
Neither photo is more or less accurate because neither of them accurately capture what I saw–it is awesome to stand at the base of Mt. Charleston. But these photos both make it seem a ways off, not towering above as I felt it.
One important aspect of the use of photos is to have a photo editor. Automated software seldom does a perfect job; usually edits can still be made to improve a photo for Web publishing. I’m working on a new Website and have come to rely upon Liz P, in British Columbia. She takes the product from the automated process and puts a human eye to it, she can improve focus or fix color that the software made too fluorescent, etc. Thanks Liz!
At the base of Mt. Charleston (before editing)
Opuntia scheeri, by Daiv Freeman, CactiGuide
This sprawling cactus rarely exceeds 3-5 ft tall, but it seems large even though it may not be tall. The feel of a large plant comes from the woody-shrubby growth and the large cladodes. Though not tall, O. sheeri stems are woody (not easily bent as in many shrubby Opuntia)—so it seems like more of an immovable object. The large cladodes (9 inches wide and 12-15 inches long) also give it a feel of “bigness,” and finally, the plant does get large horizontally.
O. scheeri flowers are large, perhaps 4 inches across, and they are attractive as they open canary yellow and then change to salmon in a few hours.
O. scheeri is native to Mexico (Queretaro and Guanajuato), and has limited frost tolerance—perhaps to 20-25F for an hour or two overnight—as long as temperatures climb above freezing the next day. Perhaps it will take more cold in a dry climate.