Cactus Blog

Reader Anthony B. sent in this link to a video.

Oy.

The Blue Mountains Courier-Herald from Thornbury, ON, Canada sends out travel writers to visit US National Parks on occasion. The Canadian travel writers don’t stay in lodges, they tent it.

Just got back from hiking and camping in the Grand Canyon Sunday night and I have to tell you the place is amazing….

Flowering cacti was the subject of our amateur yet brilliant photography.

Our eyes screened the rocky desert hoping to sight a blooming prickly pear cactus or the violet flowers peeping from a barrel head or hedgehog cactus. Although only April, pictures were snapped for our aspiring wall galleries at home.

It does seem to be a good year for cactus blooms everywhere. Even the National Parks are getting in on the act. And yet these Canadians didn’t publish any of this chap’s photos for me to “borrow.” How rude of them.

Chris sent us photos of the Echinocereus grandiflora he got from us.

Before and after. I like the “before” pic — the cactus looks ready to explode. And it did, the next day!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Oy, that’s amazing.

I don’t have much to add to this notice from Chronogram Magazine.

Brooklyn-based quartet So Percussion… sound like all-acoustic techno music. “Percussion,” of course, does not necessarily mean drums. Ethereal bells, glockenspiel, bowed marimba, and toy piano also qualify—as well as aluminum pipes and an amplified cactus.

The Chamber Arts Festival of Marbletown runs on two weekends, from May 23 to June 1, at SUNY Ulster’s Quimby Theatre. (845) 687-2687

If you get to go to the concert to hear the amplified cactus, and get to record it, then do pass it along to the rest of us.

Rebutia narvaecense

These little rebutias are amazing bloomers, with dozens of over-sized pink flowers coming from each and every one of those tiny little 1″ barrels. Just imagine after they’ve pupped and there’s a whole cluster of them! Dozens of blooms multiplied by dozens of stems! That’s a whole gross of flowers. And we can thank the good deserts of Bolivia for this spectacular show.

I wonder if I should try to edit the wikipedia entry for Bolivia? Nahhh, my recent adventure with the bontaka was enough.

Whether you eat relish or not, you must give props to the winners of the Taste of Wilmington.

The secret ingredient - cactus - showed up in a relish, a spring greens salad, a ceviche and even a sugar cookie dessert.

I ate cactus last night at Casa Poblana in Emeryville. The steak was tough, not as good as usual, but the nopale was delicious, and the margarita was fantastic.

The Austin Statesman wants you to know that this is now cactus flowering season in Texas.

Mike Leggett/AMERICAN-STATESMAN Despite a dry spring, this claret cup cactus is in full bloom in Kerr County.

This spring hasn’t been much for wildflowers, but there are all the signs it’s going to be a great year for cactus flowers.

It’s true, the cactus are blooming in Texas. How do I know? Well, I read the Austin Statesman, that’s how, duh.

The Sisyrinchium californicums have started to bloom!

It’s Sunday so I can post stupid things if I want to.

Here we have the confluence of politics and science fiction (and no, I’m not talking about Dick Cheney) in one concise, even pithy, blog entry from Atrios.

Battlestar Galactica Spoiler

Laura Roslin’s mother is Barbara Bush.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo

We noticed that too. I said, and I quote, “Her mother is Barbara Bush”.

One of our customers sent us this photo of a green roof they made. And just 2 days ago I mentioned we like getting these photos, in a post featuring another customer’s photo!

Woohoo! We also love green roofs!

Goat house with plants from Cactus Jungle. It has been a year. Sorry I meant to send sooner. I lost the name of the gal that works there that helped me. She wanted to see it complete. This photo does not do it justice. I love it!

Thank you for your help with this,

Susan Nightingale

Pachypodium baronii v. baronii

Shrubby to 2 feet tall. Shrubby really doesn’t do this plant justice. Thick, long spiny branches off in all directions. Great heaps of fluorescent blooms on long stalks in spring, with masses of thick green leaves following.

Doesn’t it look lickable? That little yellow center must taste like honey. Let me lean in just a little closer…

On the other hand, there’s this description of the habitat from Wikipedia,

This plant is endemic to Madagascar, where it grows in open deciduous forest on Mesozoic calcareous rock and granite or gneiss on the western side of the island at low elevations. It is known in Madagascar as “Bontaka”. It is also endemic from Befandriana Nord to Mandritsara.

A very different style of writing from mine, wouldn’t you say? Denser, and yet not more informative at all. I love that you might like to read both styles in one place, right here on my blog that is, since I suspect if I edited my paragraph about licking into the wikipedia article it would be edited right back out within  minutes. Shall we try?…

© Smithsonian Institution

From the Catalog of Botanical Illustrations, Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution

Plate Number: 4
Publication: The Cactaceae Vol. 3 Pl 23, Fig 5
Client: Britton, N.L. and Rose, J.N. - Size: 11×14

Echinofossulocactus violaciflorus (Cactaceae) - Collection: Safford, W.E. 1359, 09 May 1907, Mexico; flowering plant.
Artist: Passmore, D.G. - 09 May 1907 - watercolor

Jumbled words littered with cactus spines taste good on the tongue.

The East Bay Express reviews the Oakland branch of one of our favorite local restuarants, Cocina Poblana in Emeryville, and isn’t thrilled. They do like the nopales though.

Cocina Poblana belongs to the bourgeoning genre of Mexican restaurants that focus not on burritos, fajitas, and enchiladas, but on the more complex regional cookery of this food-centric nation….

Emeryville’s Cocina Poblana, which opened in 2006, helped bring this trend to the East Bay. Now proprietor Lito Saldaña has opened another, more upscale location among the chain stores and restaurants of Jack London Square. But… only a few of the venue’s dishes attain the sophisticated, dynamic, virile heights of gustatory Mexico….

Another entrée, the huarache Azteca, involves a dried-out platter of masa piled with refried beans, grilled cactus, grated cheese, and a few salty shrimp.

Well, I don’t know about the shrimp version of the huarache, but the chicken huarache at our local hangout is quite good. The grilled cactus is crisp, and tasty. And the margarita menu is top notch. Maybe we’ll go there for dinner tonight.

It’s true in this season of giant echinocereus blooms that some of them are bound to make the news. The Green Valley News and Sun published this picture.

JERRY MARRION PHOTO
Cactus king
An estimated 30 blooms make this cactus (ecinopsis genus, trichocereus species) in Esperanza Estates, a wonderful reason to appreciate the desert.

I’d pay money to see that.